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POLITICALLY as well as
industrially the field of my activities broadened immediately after
the Civil War. I had held local offices, the duties of which were in
many respects but the continuation of those I had performed as
superintendent of logging camps and mills before the civil
organization of the community. From the building of roads, the
carrying out of public improvements, and the regulation of general
affairs as manager of the mill, it was but a short step to
membership on the county board, which had most to do with the
expanding problems of local government. For a time, also, I
officiated as postmaster of Marinette. These things involved no
great sacrifice of time taken in conjunction with my occupation and
I did them as a matter of course, as I would have done them whether
I had held office or not. But when I was called upon to expand my
horizon and shoulder the obligations of state office, my attention
was diverted from the responsibilities nearer at hand, and for this
reason, the prospect of a political career was by no means alluring.
In 1865, much against
my inclination, I was nominated a candidate for the Assembly on the
Republican ticket and elected practically without opposition.
Although it was the custom of the state legislature to adjourn from
Friday until Tuesday when in session, these added duties were very
irksome to me because, just at this time, we were doing an extensive
business and the several companies of which I had charge were
enlarging the scope of their operations in response to the
commercial revival following the panic and the war. I returned to
Marinette every week during the intervals between sessions, coming
as far as Green Bay by train and driving over the ice to Marinette.
This added to the inconveniences of public office and it was not
long before I arrived at the conclusion that a legislative career
did not appeal to me. I declined to run again.
The determination to
remain in private life, however, and give my attention to business
did not long prevail. In the autumn of 1867 the people of Oconto
County became very much incensed over the grant of all the state
lands in the county to the Eldred Lumber Company, of which Anson
Eldred was the guiding spirit, for the improvement of the Oconto
River. Much of the land involved in the grant was swampy, but on
portions of it was valuable timber, and the people who were not to
derive any benefit from the improvement were naturally of the mind
that the resources of the many were being squandered to the
advantage of the few. Some of the lands even bordered on the
Menominee River. The use of them to improve a stream many miles away
aroused a storm of protest, and popular wrath was visited upon the
heads of the legislators who had acquiesced in the undertaking.
To block the
enterprise, if possible, I was urged to reconsider my decision to
retire and to run again. This I at first refused to do. The
Democrats had nominated George Smith, of Oconto, and the Republican
candidate was Richard Hubbell, son of Judge Levi Hubbell, of
Muwaukee. For four weeks the people of Oconto County— or a large
proportion of them—tried to persuade me to change my mind, but I
remained firm until three days before the election, which was held
on a Tuesday. On the Saturday preceding I telegraphed to George
Farnsworth, at Oconto, that I was in the field and would accept the
commission if the people desired to tender it to me. On Monday
morning I went to Oconto and there met Smith, the Democratic
nominee, an old friend. He assured me that I had no chance of
election whatever, that my candidacy would divide the Republican
strength, and that his success was certain.
To this I said
nothing, and I did nothing, but allowed the campaign, brief as it
was, to take its course without interference or effort.. My only
outlay was a barrel of apples which I gave to the men at Marinette
when my election was announced. The result was more than
satisfactory from my point of view. I was not only elected, but
received more votes than Smith and Hubbell together. In Marinette
every vote was cast for me but one, and the name on that ballot was
so badly written that it could not be deciphered. It might have been
Stephenson as well as Smith, but I suggested to the canvassers that
Smith ought to have it under the circumstances and it was recorded
in his favor.
Somewhat reluctantly
I returned to the Assembly. While there I succeeded in accomplishing
the purpose for which I had been mainly elected. The grant to the
Eldred company for the improvement of the Oconto River was revoked
and the lands were restored to the state. Afterward they were sold
from time to time in small pieces.
These were tumultuous
days at Madison. Lobbyists in profusion, especially those in the
employ of the railroads, hovered in the shadow of the capitol;
whiskey flowed freely, and many legislative plans were made over
steaming bowls of "hot Scotch." Not infrequently men remained all
night drinking at the bar. In 1866-1868 both houses of the state
legislature were Republican, and I proposed to the committee which
had charge of the redistricting of the state the addition of one
county to our assembly district. One Democrat rebelled, He
threatened to bolt the meeting if politics was to be given
consideration in rearranging the districts, but his defiance cooled
somewhat when I recalled that in 1856, when he was chairman of the
same committee, he had declared that he would gerrymander the state
to prevent the Republicans from electing a member. Thereupon I
proposed that the committee take a recess for fifteen minutes,
during which we visit Young's saloon, then the largest in the
capital. Every member of the committee was on his feet on the
instant and I ordered "hot Scotch" for the crowd. On the way back
one Senator locked arms with me and said I could have any change in
the district I desired. (I had not taken any alcoholic liquor until
1852. In 1873, on April 4, I came to the conclusion that it. was not
good for me and have not touched it since, avoiding even cider.)
On another occasion,
in 1868, Horace Greeley came to Madison to deliver an address and
was quartered in the same hotel at which a number of the members of
the legislature, including myself, were stopping. Late in the
evening a party of legislators, whose frequent visits to the bar had
brought them to the pitch of noisy hilarity, crowded into my rooms
which adjoined Greeley's. At my suggestion the Governor, who had
misgivings about the propriety of his appearance in such a
gathering, slipped out but was pursued by several members of the
party who clattered down the stairs after him. He succeeded in
escaping, however, and the pursuers returned to participate in the
drinking which followed. I cautioned my colleagues to be quiet, as
there was only a door between the room and Greeley's; but the
admonition only aroused the retort, "To hell with Greeley!" or loud
declarations that "Greeley's all right!" The famous editor observed
afterwards that he had been in the worst places in New York City,
but none so bad as Madison appeared to be.
My desire to avoid a
political career and give my attention to my own affairs appeared to
exert an adverse influence, for the more persistently I refused the
more I was urged. For several years friends in various parts of the
district tried to prevail upon me to enter the field of national
politics and to come forward as a candidate for the House of
Representatives; but I succeeded, for a time at least, in avoiding
that responsibility. Philetus Sawyer, of Oshkosh, who was elected in
1864, had served for ten years. When the state was redistricted Dr.
McDill, of Plover, Waupaca County, served for a term, at the
conclusion of which he was defeated by Judge Cate, a Democrat of
Stevens Point, by a half-dozen votes. Had it not been for the death
of my father at this time I am convinced that I could have turned
the scale in favor of McDill. When Cate's term expired I was again
urged to accept the nomination; but I again refused and Thaddeus
Pound, of Chippewa Falls, served for three terms.
At the end of this
time Senator Sawyer and Judge Timothy O. Howe, who had been
Postmaster-General in 1882, under President Arthur, importuned me to
become a candidate for the Republican nomination for Representative
from the district, a rather desperate chance, in view of the fact
that Pound had made a good record and was popular among the voters.
Some of the local Republican leaders, among them Thomas Scott of
Merrill, and Myron H. McChord of Shawano, joined in the plea and
still others communicated with me or came to see me. At length, in
the face of my refusals, those who were urging me to become a
candidate took time by the forelock and spread the report that I
would enter the contest. With some misgivings I finally consented
and the announcement was made through the Milwaukee Sentinel that I
was in the field.
The uncertainty of
politics was very soon brought home to me. Both Scott and McChord
and other Republican leaders in the Wisconsin River valley, who had
so persistently urged me to run, brought out promptly on the
following day Charles M. Webb, later Judge Webb, who was obviously
to receive the support of the organization. The next day E. L. Brown
of Waupaca, announced his candidacy. There were, therefore, four
Republicans out for the nomination: Pound, Webb, Brown, and myself.
The complications
that followed in this four-cornered fight were perplexing. In the
first place it was a bad year for the Republican party generally,
the split between Blaine and Conkling having resulted in the
formation of two factions. In my own case were the internal
difficulties. It was quite obvious that the politicians despaired of
beating Pound with any candidate from among their own number and
counted upon my strength with the voters to weaken his position. The
Pound men were quite as convinced that the discord in the Republican
ranks would give them the upper hand. According to the plans that
had been laid, my candidacy was merely to serve this secondary
purpose; and the next strategic move of the Republican politicians
was to put forward Webb in the hope that in the manoeuvring between
Pound and myself and, possibly, Brown, he would, in racing parlance,
take the rail. The odds against me, therefore, seemed to be
overwhelming, but I was not ready to give up the struggle.
It was said at the
time that the people of Portage County were for E. L. Brown, the
convention for Webb, but the delegates for me. When the convention
met, Brown, convinced that he could not win, said that his delegates
would switch to me after the first ballot, but I told him there
would be no second ballot. This proved to be the case. I mustered
the necessary majority on the first roll-call.
This upset the plans
of the politicians and when I asked the leaders to bring out the
vote they assumed an attitude of indifference; said that they did
not know whether they would go to the polls or not, and that they
might vote the Prohibition ticket. The burden of the entire campaign
fell upon me. Pound's friends showed their disappointment by
refusing to work at all, and some of the Webb men refused not only
to work but to vote. On the other hand, Judge Parks, of Stevens
Point, the Democratic candidate, had a very large following and
being judge of the district was supported very generally by the
lawyers, regardless of politics, who hoped to obtain favors at his
hands. In spite of the odds against me I was elected by a majority
of two hundred and fifty-six out of a total of forty-seven thousand
votes.
In the Wisconsin
delegation to the Forty-eighth Congress were three Republicans and
six Democrats. The House of Representatives was also controlled by
the Democrats by a majority of eighty-one votes and being in the
minority we could accomplish little.
In 1884 I was a
candidate for a second lime. The situation was then much different.
The opposition to me had crumbled and after an easy campaign I was
re-elected by a majority of four thousand. The fight centered mainly
upon the state legislature, control of which the Republicans sought
in order that they might designate one of their own number as the
successor to Angus Cameron, whose latter term expired in March,
1885. John C. Spooner was the candidate and all the energies of the
party were directed toward his election. At this time I began to
appreciate the pecuniary demands of politics. The clamor of the
political leaders for funds wherewith to carry on the conflict was
incessant. Although my own campaign presented few difficulties and
my own election was a foregone conclusion, I contributed, to carry
on the struggle for control of the state legislature in the interest
of Spooner, twenty-two thousand dollars. Our efforts were successful
and Spooner assumed office on March 4, 1885.
Much the same
situation prevailed in 1886, when Senator Sawyer was up for
re-election. My own campaign gave me little concern. I was elected
for the third time with a majority of five thousand and might have
had a much larger vote if I had not neglected my own affairs to
devote my time to the fight for the control of the legislature in
the interest of Sawyer. In this we were again successful and Sawyer
was returned.
This ended my career
in the House of Representatives. It had been sufficiently long to
convince me that it was better for me to remain at home and attend
to the business affairs which had suffered much by my absence, as my
partners were not practical lumbermen and could not altogether fill
my place. At the expiration of the third term I announced, in 1889,
that I would not accept the nomination again. It probably would have
been given me by a unanimous vote, for my political strength
appeared to increase with time and the opposition waned in inverse
ratio as my majority had gone up. But I had performed such duty as
could have been expected of me and had had sufficient experience in
public office to know that the sacrifices it involved were to one in
my position out of all proportion to the advantages it conferred or
the good it enabled one to accomplish. Upon my withdrawal the
Republicans nominated Myron H. McChord, who served but one term.
Politics did not
cease to interest me altogether, nor did many of the Republicans
regard me as having entered into permanent retirement. Once or twice
I was urged to become a candidate for gubernatorial honors, but the
sacrifice of taking over the responsibilities of another office for
two years, although nearer at home, was as great as that involved in
going to Washington, and I refused to consider the proposals. I did,
however, go to the Republican national convention of 1892, at which
Harrison was nominated for the second time, and was also a delegate
at large and chairman of the state delegation in 1900, when McKinley
was nominated the second time. My first experience of this kind had
been gained in 1880, when I was a delegate to the convention which
nominated Garfield.
In 1896, after the
election of President McKinley, the plan was conceived by the
friends of Henry C. Payne, who had been the active force in
organizing and directing the Republican campaign, of suggesting to
the President his appointment as Postmaster-General. At this time I
held no office, but as I had known the President when we were both
serving in the House of Representatives I went to Canton in December
with Senator Sawyer to see him and to urge Payne's appointment. The
President-elect received me cordially and after we had discussed at
some length the forthcoming inauguration and experiences in the
house, where he had also known my brother, S. M. Stephenson,
intimately, I broached the subject of Payne's appointment. He gave
us such assurances that both Senator Sawyer and I went away with the
conviction that Payne would be chosen for the place. This, however,
did not come to pass.
Later on in
Washington I called at the White House and ventured to tell
President McKinley that he had made a mistake. He said that he had
found it to be impossible to carry out his intention and volunteered
to appoint Payne to any post in the diplomatic service except
London, Paris, or Berlin, which had already been filled. Afterward
Payne, at my suggestion, went to the White house and the President
repeated the offer to him, but he declined it, preferring to remain
in the United States. He finally received his reward, however, at
the hands of President Roosevelt, who appointed him
Postmaster-General upon the resignation of Charles Emory Smith.
For a number of
years, except for incidents such as this, I enjoyed a much needed
respite from the cares of public office and was very glad to be left
undisturbed in the management of my own business affairs. But in
1898 and 1899, clouds again began to gather upon the political
horizon. Senator Sawyer, whom I had known very well not only in
Wisconsin but in Washington, and other Republican leaders in the
state proposed that I become a candidate for the United States
Senate to succeed John L. Mitchell, whose term was to expire in
1899. Sawyer, Payne, Spooner, and various other men for a period of
two years had discussed the subject of my possible candidacy. Payne
himself wanted the office, but his health was impaired and
opposition to him from certain classes of people in the state was so
pronounced that the chances of his election were doubtful. To the
plan of putting me forward I was one of the last to give my
approval, and personal considerations would have led me to remain
where I was after having experienced the disadvantages that a
congressional career entailed. But at the solicitation of those whom
I regarded as my friends, and with the purpose of doing what seemed
best from a party point of view, I finally consented to run.
The moral of that
undertaking was a valuable one to me. I discovered for the second
time that political assurances were not to be taken at their face
value and that I could not rely upon the promises of my friends - or
at least some of those whom I had regarded as my friends,— with half
as much certainty as I could expect the opposition of my enemies,
confirming and accentuating the conclusions I had reached as the
result of my first campaign for Congress. No sooner had the decision
been reached when the organization leaders switched their support to
Quarles and left me dangling in midair. Perhaps my defeat was due in
some measure to the fact that, unaware of the turn of events, I had
gone to California, where my daughter christened the battleship
"Wisconsin," and so lost valuable time in the campaign. In any
event, Quarles was elected.
To be quite frank,
however, I was disappointed, if wiser, at the end. I felt that I had
done much for the Republican party in the State of Wisconsin from
1858 up to that time, only to receive scant reward, if one might be
permitted to consider the situation in that lesser light. In itself
this meant little to me, and I had not worked with the expectation
of receiving anything in return, but simply as one interested in
party success. Nor was I indifferent to the distinction that
election to the United States Senate or service in that body
confers. It is an honor worthily sought, the one office in all my
political career I would willingly have accepted.
But there was another
phaise to the situation. It was quite natural, considered in a
purely personal light, that I should have felt some resentment
against those who had urged me to become a candidate in the interest
of the party and then given their support to another,— these, too,
the men whom I had assisted in good faith and for whom I had made
great sacrifices. Had my defeat been due to popular choice there
would have been no occasion for complaint and I should have accepted
my fate without murmuring. But it was not a question of popular
choice at all. I began to realize for the first time the power and
devious ways of the "machine." |
