USA > Pennsylvania > A biographical album of prominent Pennsylvanians, v. 1 > Part 3
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In 1880 Mr. Randall's name first became prominently considered as a desira- ble Democratic candidate for the Presidency of the United States. He had been the four immediately preceding years close in the counsel of Samuel J. Tilden, and believing that the sage of Greystone was unjustly deprived of the Presi- dency in 1877, he was an unwavering supporter of his claims to renomination. Occupying that attitude, he resolutely declined to have his own name canvassed, and, in the opinion of many of his friends, carried his loyalty to Mr. Tilden to
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SAMUEL J. RANDALL.
the verge of ruthless self-sacrifice. In June, 1880, he actually went to the National Democratic Convention to lead the advocates of "the Old Ticket." The Convention met in Cincinnati. Mr. Randall's head-quarters were at the St. Nicholas Hotel. There he was waited upon by scores of influential dele- gates and other party leaders, who begged that he would drop Tilden and enter the lists himself. These overtures were firmly and even impatiently rejected ; but they were renewed with fresh force when Mr. Tilden telegraphed a declina- tion of renomination. Confusion followed this declination, and it is probable that Randall is the only man who could have held the Tilden phalanx together. An attempt was made to consolidate on Payne, but it was a failure. Too late, but even then against his wishes, the name of Randall was thrown into the Con- vention. Hancock was the nominee, but Randall, without organization or serious effort on the part of his friends, polled over 100 votes.
There was a similar use of Mr. Randall's name in the Convention at Chicago, in 1884. During the Garfield and Arthur administrations alike, while his party was in a minority in the Senate and in the majority in the House, his hold on the Democratic party had been greatly strengthened. More than ever he came to be recognized as the natural leader of the Democracy; yet by a com- bination of revenue reformers and defenders of the whiskey interests he was beaten for the Speakership in 1883, the opposition having the sagacity to select, as their candidate, Carlisle, of Kentucky. This result gave Mr. Randall less concern than his friends, and caused him no loss of prestige. On the contrary, as Chairman of the Appropriations Committee, he did more effective work than ever for his party and the country, and the opposing and triumphant faction in the Speakership was obliged to call him to the rescue, and follow his lead in every emergency. From all parts of the country went to Chicago men who wished to make him their candidate for President. He went to Chicago, too, but intent upon other things. He believed the platform of supreme importance, and to its proper construction bent all his energies, to the sacrifice of his per- sonal ambition. He had his way about the platform, and then, rejecting all offers of combinations in his own behalf, threw all of his influence unreservedly in behalf of the nomination of Grover Cleveland. Nevertheless some of his friends persisted in voting their first choice, and on the first ballot he received 170 votes, showing a strength second only to Cleveland's. Subsequently nearly every Randall man joined the Cleveland column, giving him the necessary two- thirds for the nomination. Nobody rejoiced more than Mr. Randall in a result which he did so much to bring about, and throughout the campaign he was one of Mr. Cleveland's most trusted advisers, and his influence in regard to appoint- ments to important offices has been paramount during the administration.
HON. HENRY H. BINGHAM
HENRY HARRISON BINGHAM.
H ENRY HARRISON BINGHAM, soldier when war involving the life of his country was in progress, honored citizen crowned by Pennsylvanians with laurels that decorate those triumphs of peace which are "no less renowned " than those of war, and able man in the practical affairs of life, was born in the Ninth ward of Philadelphia in 1841. His structure, both intellectual and physical, betokens his descent from the hardy Scotch-Irish race, which has contributed so munifi- cently to the preservation of the traits that make the English-speaking people dominant in the thought and action of the nineteenth century. James Bingham, the father of General Henry Harrison Bingham, was born early in the present century, and was, when his distinguished son was born, a member of the then well-known forwarding firm of Bingham & Dock. General Bingham's paternal grandfather was Thomas Bingham. The name of his mother was Ann Shellar Baum. General Bingham pursued the usual Philadelphian course of instruction until during 1858 he was entered at Jefferson College, at Cannonsburg, Penna. Graduating in August, 1862, he was the recipient five years later, when he was already eminent by his valor on the battle-field, of the distinction of being made a Master of Arts by his Alma Mater. Hardly twenty years of age, when Fort Sumter was fired upon. he was with difficulty restrained from entering the military service of the Union, and persuaded to remain at college during the year yet necessary to complete his academic course. When the honors of graduation were bestowed upon him he immediately enlisted for the army, and aided in the organization of a company of infantry, composed almost wholly of college and class-mates, and was selected as one of the lieutenants of the company, a pro- motion which he gladly accepted. The company was assigned to the 140th Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers, with young Bingham as its captain. From that time on, during the period when the Army of the Potomac was winning its imperishable fame, he was a distinguished feature in Pennsylvania's splendid contribution to that illustrious host of patriots and heroes. During his four years of arduous duty Captain Bingham illustrated the best traits of soldiership, while he blended with his admirable bearing in the service of his country a rare gentility and philanthropy in the performance of duty. Testi- mony to his service as a soldier is amply given by that eminent Pennsyl- vanian, General Winfield Scott Hancock, who, in a letter to the Secretary of War recommending Captain Bingham for promotion to the rank of Major, said :
" Captain Bingham is a man of talent and an officer of rare spirit. Ilis habits are good, and I think he is the best Judge-Advocate I have seen in the army." Then, again, in recommending Mr. Bingham, who in the meantime had reached the rank of Colonel, for promotion to a Brigadier-Generalship, General Hancock said : " On all occasions Colonel Bingham has especially distinguished himself
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HENRY H. BINGHAM.
for intrepidity in action, especially at Gettysburg, where he was slightly wounded; at the Wilderness, where he performed important services in rallying broken troops, and at Spottsylvania, where he was most severely wounded while gallantly performing his duty."
This is the tribute of one soldier to another. Who that has known General Bingham in war or peace will not freely accord equal praise to the model gentleman ? With a quick, penetrating, well-trained mind, of which the founda- tion is good judgment and fine poise, General Bingham has a well-adjusted temperament that makes him, while self-respecting, also consistent of the feelings of others. His public utterances are always founded upon an acute appreciation of the topics of the hour, and are addressed to the reason and the justice of his fellow-citizens, while all his actions are inspired by the fairness, integrity and magnanimity which are the rule of his life.
It was on the 26th of April, 1863, that Captain Bingham was taken from his company and made the Judge-Advocate of the First Division of the Second Army Corps, then stationed at Falmouth, Va. So well did he perform the duties of his new office that in the following June he was assigned to the staff of Gen- eral Hancock and made Judge-Advocate of the corps. Bingham's commission of Major and Judge-Advocate was one of only twenty-two similar commissions issued by the War Department during the war. That he fairly earned this rapid promotion is well attested in the reasons given at the War Department. They read : "For good conduct and conspicuous gallantry, especially at the Wilder- ness, May 6th, 1864, where he collected a considerable party of stragglers and led them against the enemy with marked bravery, and at Spottsylvania, May 12th, 1864, where he voluntarily took part with his regiment in the assault and was wounded. He was also wounded at Gettysburg." General Bingham's qual- ities as a soldier were of such a character that further promotion came to him rapidly. In April, 1865, he was commissioned Brevet Brigadier-General and Judge-Advocate of the Middle Military Department, embracing the States of Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia and Delaware. Although Lee surrendered at Appomattox in April, 1865, it was not until July, 1866, that General Bingham was honorably mustered out of the service.
Returning to his home in Philadelphia, General Bingham was soon afterward made the Chief Clerk of the Post-Office there. He accepted the place with the intention of holding it simply as a means of support until he could study the law and fit himself for the practice of the same. But fate seemed to decree otherwise. Andrew Johnson was then President of the United States and was in conflict with the representatives in Congress of the party that elected him. He appointed person after person to be Postmaster at Philadelphia, but the Senate would not confirm any one of them. Finally Chief Clerk Bingham, upon the recommendation of Major-General Meade and Major-General Hancock, both of whom knew his fitness, capacity and distinguished army record, was suggested for the position. l'resident Johnson accepted the suggestion, sent Bingham's
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HENRY H. BINGHAM.
name to the Senate, and that body promptly confirmed the nomination. At the expiration of his term, in 1869, he was immediately reappointed by President Grant. As postmaster General Bingham showed that same tenacity of purpose -industry, push, skill and intelligence-that made him so conspicuously success- ful as an officer in the war. During his administration he succeeded in bringing all of the outlying post-offices in the county of Philadelphia within the jurisdic- tion of the Philadelphia post-office, thereby making the postage uniform through- out the county. He was the first postmaster in the country to put his carriers in uniform. He organized the movement for a new building for the post-office and the United States Courts, and when Congress made the necessary appropria- tion he was made a member and chosen as secretary of the commission created to select a site. The result of this commission's labors was the selection of the site at Ninth and Chestnut streets, where to-day stands the finest Federal build- ing in the country. As postmaster General Bingham naturally drifted into poli- tics and soon became an important factor in his party's councils He was Treas- urer of the Republican State Central Committee from 1869 to 1875 He was one of the four delegates-at-large from Pennsylvania to the National Republican Convention that was held in Philadelphia in 1872, and which placed General Grant in nomination for a second term of the Presidency, and Permanent Secre- tary of that body. In the autumn of 1872 he was placed in nomination by his party in Philadelphia for the position of Clerk of the Courts Oyer and Terminer and Quarter Sessions of the Peace of the County of Philadelphia, and was elected by the people at the election in October. He resigned his position of postmaster and took possession of his new office, December Ist, 1872. In 1875 he was re- nominated for the clerkship by his party, and again the people elected him. In the following year he was chosen as one of the two delegates from the first Con- gressional district to the National Republican Convention held in Cincinnati and which placed Rutherford B Hayes in nomination for the Presidency. Shortly before the expiration of his second term as Clerk of Quarter Sessions General Bingham was nominated for Congress by the Republicans of the First District of Pennsylvania, comprising the First, Second, Seventh, Twenty-sixth and Thirtieth wards of Philadelphia, and he was elected by the people. He entered the Forty. sixth Congress with his party in the minority. He was assigned to the Commit- tee on the Post-Office and Post-Roads. In 1880 he was re-elected, and his party in the Forty-seventh Congress being in the majority, he was made the Chairman of the Post-Office and Post-Roads Committee. This enabled him to get the attention of the House, and gave him the opportunity to show to that body and to ยท the country that he was well qualified and well equipped to be a member of the National Congress. In presenting to the House the measures matured in his com. mittee and in advocating the same, he proved himself a man ready, eloquent and convincing in debate, with a fine presence and a voice strong, clear and distinct.
During his chairmanship of the Post-Office Committee he secured legislation looking to the largest convenience for the people and a continued reduction of 4
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HENRY H. BINGHAM.
postage. He made a specialty of framing laws to improve and perfect our postal system, and He is looked upon in the House as the authority on all matters relat- ing to the post-office of the government. He is the author of the law passed by the Forty-seventh Congress establishing and creating the postal note and reduc- ing the charges for the money order service. He is the author of the legislation of the Forty-sixth and Forty-seventh Congresses reorganizing the free delivery and the railway mail service. He framed the bill which was passed by the Forty-eighth Congress readjusting the compensation of the entire force of post- masters upon a basis of work actually done, thereby preventing favoritism. He re- ported to the House the bill reducing domestic postage from three cents to two cents, and made the leading argument on the measure.
In 1882 he was elected to the Forty-eighth Congress, and was assigned to membership on the Committee on the Post-Office and Post-Roads and the Com- mittee on Civil Service Reform In this Congress he introduced and had re- ported favorably to the House a bill changing the maximum weight of domestic letters from one-half ounce to one ounce and transporting the same through the mails for two cents. He introduced, also, reported favorably and passed through the House a bill reducing postage on second class-matter, such as newspapers and periodicals, from one cent for two ounces to one cent for four ounces.
General Bingham was chosen by his constituents as one of the two delegates from the First District to represent them at the Republican National Convention, held at Chicago, June, 1884, and which placed James G Blaine in nomina- tion for the Presidency. In that convention he made the speech seconding the nomination of Chester A. Arthur for the Presidency. In November, 1887, he was for the fifth time elected to Congress. He is now serving in the 50th Congress.
HON. JAMES B. EVERHART.
JAMES BOWEN EVERHART.
T wo centuries is a goodly and long time for one to glance back through the vista of a family history ; yet it is about that length of time since there landed in New York from Germany-most probably from the ancient kingdom of Wurtemberg-a family by the name of Eberhard, which has since that date become anglicized into Everhart. This name is closely linked with the history of Wurtemberg; and as far back as 1370 there was a famous Eberhard, who figured prominently in the history of Germany, and gave the Emperor Karl IV. no little amount of trouble, which was continued for several years with the Emperor's son and successor, Wenczelas.
About the commencement of the last century the ancestor of the subject of this sketch moved to Pennsylvania, and settled finally in Vincent township, Chester county. The grandfather, James Everhart, was a stripling of seventeen years when the Revolution of the English colonies occurred. Like a brave and patriotic youth, he shouldered his musket and was soon in the field fighting for the cause of liberty and independence. He served the infant Republic until his musket was worn out. He lived to see his grandchildren and died a nona- genarian. He had three sons, James, John and William; the first two were in the iron business, as owners of furnaces, and the latter, the father of James Bowen Everhart, learned the profession of surveyor, which he carried on until near the time of his majority, when he engaged in the mercantile business in Tredyffrin township. He afterwards moved to West Whiteland township, and in 1814 married Miss Matlack, whose ancestors were from Matlock, England, one of whom owned nearly all of what is now the North, and part of what is now the East, ward of West Chester and adjoining lands.
In 1822 William Everhart, being desirous of increasing his stock of merchan- dise, sailed from New York with $10,000 in gold-in those days bills of exchange and drafts were not as easily procured as at the present day-on the ill-fated packet ship Albion, for Liverpool ; besides Mr. Everhart there were the following noted passengers on board : General Lefebvre Desnouettes, Colonel A. J. Prevost, Major William Gough, brother of Lord Gough, Professor Fisher, of Yale College, and twenty-five others. On the night of April 22d, during a terrific storm, the ship was driven upon the rocks of Old Head of Kinsale, Ire- land, and completely wrecked. The captain and all of the crew and steerage but eight, together with every cabin passenger excepting Mr. Everhart, found a watery grave. He with almost superhuman efforts succeeded in saving his life, by clinging to the nearly perpendicular rock, upon which he found just sufficient space to rest one foot, in which position he remained until the dawn of the next day, when he was rescued by the people, who lowered a rope to him from the headland above.
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JAMES B. EVERHART.
Having moved to West Chester, he purchased the "Wollerton Farm " and other tracts in 1829, which to-day make up the bulk of the business portion of the borough. At his own expense he laid out streets and presented them to the authorities. He also erected several substantial stores, residences, offices and the Mansion House, one of the principal hotels of the town. He has been justly looked upon as one of the most enterprising and liberal-minded gentlemen that ever lived in the town. In 1852 he was elected on the Whig ticket to Con- gress, and just before his term expired he delivered, on May 19th, 1854, a very able speech on the Kansas-Nebraska bill of Senator Douglas, in which he, in almost prophetic language, predicted the dreadful results that would follow the passage of the bill, saying "its authors are sowing the wind, but will reap the whirlwind." He declined a renomination in 1854. In 1867 he retired from business, having amassed a large fortune, with a credit second to none both in this country and Europe. In 1868 he died.
JAMES BOWEN EVERHART, who represented the Sixth Pennsylvania District, composed of Chester and Delaware counties, in the XLVIII. and XLIX. Con- gresses, was born in West Whiteland township, a few miles from West Chester, and is now in the prime of his life, a genial, highly gifted bachelor, around whom both men many years his senior and his junior delight to gather and enjoy hours of social and instructive conversation. Mr. Everhart when called upon to address an audience never fails to please. His comparisons are largely made from Scripture characters, scenes and events, and historical subjects. He has two brothers living-Benjamin M. Everhart, a botanist, who is well known abroad and at home ; and John R. Everhart, M. D., who was a surgeon through- out the war, and who has travelled extensively and published some interesting letters of foreign countries.
He received his early education at Bolmar's Academy in West Chester. His preceptor, Antoine Bolmar, was a French gentleman and soldier, who had served under the Duc d'Angouleme in the Franco-Spanish wars, and settled in West Chester in 1832. After finishing at that institute of learning, he entered Princeton College. He graduated in a class of sixty in 1842, with high honors. After his graduation he returned to West Chester, and some time thereafter commenced the study of law under Hon. Joseph J. Lewis, Commissioner of Internal Revenue under Lincoln, and the Nestor of the Chester county bar. He remained under Mr. Lewis' tutorship for a year, when he went to the Har- vard Law School, and passed about another year. To further perfect himself in legal lore, he entered the law office of the late Hon. William M. Meredith in Philadelphia, and was admitted to practice at the Chester county and the Phila- delphia bar. For three years he practised his profession in West Chester, and then went upon a foreign tour. He passed several months in the University of Berlin, and was absent from home for three years. On his return he resumed his practice, which he relinquished in 1860. During his service at the bar he was nearly always found as the defendant's counsel, excepting in one instance,
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JAMES B. EVERHART.
when he assisted the Commonwealth officer in a criminal prosecution. His field was a varied one, covering nearly every branch of law, such as arson, burglary, forgery, riot, manslaughter, and six murder trials. Not one of the defendants in the latter cases suffered capital punishment. He conducted the defence of two poisoning cases, in which the prisoners were only convicted of murder in the second degree-cases perhaps then without a precedent in Penn- sylvania criminal annals. He also conducted a case of homicide in which juris- diction was ousted on his motion, because the blow was given in Chester county while death occurred in Philadelphia. It may here be remarked that this last- named case was like that of our murdered President Garfield, who, though shot in Washington, died in New Jersey. In one of the homicide cases above men- tioned, he was threatened with bodily harm by a friend of the dead man if he defended the prisoner, and was also importuned by others not to enter the case, being assured that he would lose every friend he had in the neighborhood where the crime occurred. Notwithstanding the threats and friendly advice, he defended the prisoner and saved his life, thus showing that he was not to be deterred in his convictions of justice and the right of the defendant to have a fair trial. In civil suits he was interested in cases involving titles, trusts, action in covenant for non-performance, one for nuisance, in which a company was prose- cuted for corrupting water used in the manufacture of paper. In this case his side had chemical experiments made in open court before a jury. In another suit for divorce, he made claim on the husband to pay the wife's counsel fees, without regard to the result of the case, which claim was then for the first time allowed in Chester county, though before recognized by the courts of Philadel- phia. In an important quo warranto case, involving the charter of a railroad company, before the Supreme Court, being suddenly left alone by his elder col- league in the case when it came up, he showed considerable courage in oppos- ing, single-handed, three of the ablest lawyers in Pennsylvania, who were also flanked by attorneys of well-known fame as advisers. In fact, during the few years that he acted as a counsellor, he managed all manner of cases. His field of action was not confined to Chester county, but he tried cases and delivered speeches and lectures in several counties of the State.
When Mr. Everhart left the University of Berlin he started on an extended tour through Europe, Asia, Africa and the British Isles. On the continent he visited nearly all the noted cities of France and other places of historic interest in that country, and passed several weeks in its gay capital of the then Republic, over which Louis Napoleon Bonaparte ruled as President.
At Naples he climbed to Vesuvius, and looked into its crater while in a state of partial eruption, with " stones being shot up like rockets " close beside him. From the summit of the burning mountain he descended to the two fated cities of Herculaneum and Pompeii, and walked through their lava-paved streets, and looked upon the jewels worn by the beautiful women of nineteen centuries ago. He also visited the " City of the Sea," and went through the palaces of the
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JAMES B. EVERHART.
Doges, crossed the Rialto, and lingered at the Bridge of Sighs, over which the victim of the Council passed to his doom.
Leaving Europe, he crossed the Mediterranean and visited Egypt, sailed upon the Nile, " the joy of the Arab," up as far as the Ruins of Thebes. He wan- dered in the Desert, and had sundry semi-agreeable adventures with the Bedouins. Leaving the ancient kingdom of the Ptolemies and the beautiful Cleopatra, he entered the land of Palestine and sojourned for a short space of time in the ancient city of the Kings of Israel, visiting all the noted places of interest in and around Jerusalem; while there, he was enabled to witness the Easter festival, which attracted Jew, Christian and Mohammedan. From Jeru- salem he proceeded to the Jordan and Dead Sea; while on the banks of the former he had a rather unpleasant encounter with the Jordan robbers, and by his great presence of mind in all probability saved his life. Among the cities of Palestine that he visited were Jericho, the City of the Nativity, Beer, Bethsaida, Tyre and Beirut, at which point he took ship for Constantinople.
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