| Show write for thu this paper WILLIAM B ALLISON copyrighted by bv prank frank 0 ca carpenter menter 1899 spent an evening not long ago with senator william B allison he lives on vermont avenue within a three m minutes i n u t es walk of the white house in one of the most fashionable parts of the city the houses about his washington home are comparatively ively new mw but nearly ever every one of them has a 6 famous resident and beach each ot 61 the older places has had its history just above is the red brick house which justin S morrill the oldest man in the united states senate has occupied for years just below is the big trick in which secretary charles foster lived when he was carrying the burden of the united states treasury and a secret lo 10 load ad of personal financial ruin through the smiles samues and quirks of washington society across the way on the corner of irth street is the old home of gen bob schenck now changed into a flat with a flower bower store and a wine shop in the basement in the block below lives senator mcmillan Ilan of michigan in an brick mansion and around the corner on massachusetts avenue are the houses of a bakers dozen of supreme court justices ices I 1 demons senators and ric rich literary y men senator Alli sons house houi is one of the plainest of the neighborhood it is a white three story brick built in the conventional style with a big parlor in the front a library at the back and a dining room somewhere in the rear it is well furnished and its walls are covered with choice engravings and good paintings SENATOR ALLISON IN 1895 it was in the library that I 1 met the senator he is one of the healthiest looking men in in public life he is now sixty he is in splendid condition both physically and intellectually and I 1 might also say psychically he has always cultivated looking at matters in a common sense conservative way and while he has been a hard worker and a fairly good liver his life has beegan even one and he has not allowed the chase forthe for the dollar nor the ambitions of politics to contract and distort his soul soui he is clear headed and clean always well dressed he makes you think of a new york club man or banker rather than oi of the average american statesman his black clothes are well cut and the linen of his shirt and his bis broad expansive collat collar which exceeds exceeds even that of william M evarts in size is of the finest material and as white as the driven snow his hair within the last year has perceptibly whitened and it is last becoming iron iron gray his eye however is is bright and the say e rosy corpuscles corpus cles that shine through his fair skin show that his blood is full of iron he has a strong face his f forehead is very broad and above the average heigh heights th his nose is large and his mouth and lower jaw are indicative of determination and will he is a good story teller and he has a hearty laugh his voice voice is deep and strong his words come slowly but he seldom makes a mistake and the sentences of his private conversation are almost as rounded as those which he delivers on the floor of the senate he was sitting at a table with a box of cigars and a pile of papers beside him when I 1 called and he smoked as he talked VALUABLE historical PAPERS As I 1 looked look ed at the papers I 1 thought of a call which I 1 recently made on senator john sherman whom I 1 hound found working over the manuscripts of his past and I 1 asked senator allison what had been laist his habit in regard to keeping keepin g papers arid and dati data concerning the histo historic Ac events aventi of which he has formed so great a part he replied that he had bad preserved some letters but that he had never kept a d daily a 1 1 journal 1 1 T I am sorry said he be that I 1 have never kept a dai diary i ary I 1 have kept papers somewhat and I 1 have a large amount of correspondence scattered through my boxes I 1 may write my memoirs in in my old age I 1 imagine it would be rather pleasant work my attention was called to it by the recent death of in my colleague senator wilson I 1 had 10 to write something concerning him and it was in doin doing g this that the past came up be fore me for thirty years back I 1 have known every man who has been con necked with our public afi af lairs airs I 1 have known the inside of abl things and the motives of our great men I 1 haye been as it were behind the scenes ana and there are many things that have never been published which it seems to me would make interesting reading I 1 am not thinking ot of writing now and I 1 dont know that I 1 ever will write but the task strikes me as a pleasant one THE convention OF tell me senator about your first connection with politics 1 I can give you my first political office replied senator allison it was as one of the tally secretaries of the convention of 1860 which nominated president lincoln I 1 was born and educated you know in ohio and after my graduation at the western reserve col college I 1 ege I 1 I 1 began the practice of the law at the little town of ashland somewhere near nean the center of the alta state it is just about fifteen miles mans field field whence john sherman comes and where the late samuel J kirkwood used to practice law before he went to iowa iowa you know is settled large ly by ohio people and after I 1 had practiced law tor for a time at ashland I 1 got the western lever and went out there this was in 1857 1 I was republican in my tendencies and though I 1 wa was s practicing law I 1 was much interested i in politics and I 1 was made one of the delegates deli gates to this convention in 1860 for some reason or other they made me one of the tally clerks I 1 sat right in front of george ashmun of massachusetts achu who was the president of the convention and I 1 believe that I 1 gave to him the first news of Lincol ns nomina tion I 1 kept footing up the figurea i as they came in inand and some time before bit am the members of the convention were aware of the fact I 1 saw that lin lincoln co would I 1 be elected and I 1 turned about abot it aid U 0 o W I 1 mr ashmun the fact A few moments later the convention realized it and then en sued one of the most wonderful scenes of our history the convention was held in the old wigwam in chicago and there were about ten thousand people present when the vote was announced a scream went up from thousands of throats and fully one thousand hats wre thrown into the air it rained hats for several minutes after the autio announcement and I 1 can still see the hats rising and falling the people lost control of themselves and I 1 have often wondered what became of those hats for there was not much possibility of recovering your hat in a mob like that HOW HE HB CAME TO CONGRESS how did you happen to come to C congress 0 tigress senator well replied senator allison that is something of a story I 1 dont think I 1 was ambitious to be a politician ciau 1 I certainly made no effort to secure my first nomination and it came about indirectly through the influence and prestige which I 1 acquired by being the friend of samuel T J kirkwood who was then governor of iowa As soon as he was elected he put me on his staff and at the outbreak of the war he directed me to raise some regiments for the army my territory was north iowa and I 1 had organized three regiments along in 1861 when I 1 was taken sick and for a year I 1 wat wa unable to do anything As soon as I 1 recovered governor kirkwood put me again at work and I 1 raised three more regiments or six regiments in all this was in 1862 and it was just about the time of nominating members of congress the candidate for cortil nomination of the republican party clarty from frodi atit conr country was an extremely radical man he wanted slavery abolished at once and wanted the president to adopt the most extreme measures as to the carrying on of the war I 1 was a little more conservative and the large conservative element of the district made me their candidate the result was that I 1 was nominated and the opposing democratic candidate was an editor who was then in jail on account of disloyalty he had been ordered there by secretary stanton and the issue was a straight one of ier for the union or against it VOTING IOWA SOLDIERS IN THE MELD FIELD you can hardly imagine today the situation in 1862 63 senator allison continued the democratic party was strong and the republican party had been depleted by the volunteers tor for the war which had you know been called for again and again in organizing my regiments for the army I 1 noted that nine tenths of them were republicans and in looking over the congressional field I 1 found that if all these votes were to be lost I 1 would probably be defeated the men were to go away to the field in a few days if I 1 could have their votes I 1 would be elected how to get them I 1 did not know I 1 worried over the matter and finally decided that if their votes vates could be taken in the field it would save not mot only this congressional district to the republican patty party but others in dif different trent parts of iowa it was then a recess of the legislature however and such auch a measure would require legislative action I 1 concluded cooch kled to go to governor kirk woo and get him to call an extra session I 1 did so spending all the night av OH V the train to so go irom from dubuque to there was no direct road thlen thien and I 1 bad aad to go out into illinois and there here connect with the C B and Q and come back I 1 presented the situation to the governor I 1 told him that it was certain that wilson could not be elected elect td and that I 1 doubted whether I 1 could be but that my chances were better than his governor kirkwood did not think the matter so serious at first but upon my showing hirr hiir the real status of affairs he said that if I 1 would go and get a letter from senator grimes advising the matter he would call the extra session kirkwood had a great respect for grimes judgment I 1 then went to see grimes he lived at bur lington and I 1 walked from the train to his house I 1 was told he was down in the city I 1 looked him up and lound found him in a grocery bya by a young man named gear the same young man who had bad just been elected from my state to take wilsons Wil sons place in the united unified states senate well I 1 presented the situation to senator grimes he laughed at first but I 1 soon showed him that I 1 was right and he said well veu if that is so and I 1 think it is wensiu certainly lose two districts in congress it the governor does not call an aa extra session if I 1 were him I 1 waw not hesitate a moment I 1 would call a session but ut I 1 would make calt basis of the call horel saw my chance and said governor kirkwood sent me to you to find out what you thought about the mauer and to bring him an answer NOW it if you think that there should shoula be an extra session he would like it and I 1 would liki like to carry him a note from saying so you sating Sex senator tatar grimes then en gave me a no e to governor kirkwood stating that I 1 had bad called upon him about the matter and that I 1 was very much alarmed over the situation in this note he wrote about as lol lows I 1 am more sanguine as to the patriotism of the people of iowa than allison but I 1 think that the situation is such that an extra session of the legislature ought to be called upon this question the expenses of such a meeting will be a bagatelle in comparison with the great issues involved 1 I took this note back to governor Kir kirkwood lwood he called a meeting of the legislature and our soldiers were voted in the field we sent I 1 think three commissioners and their votes were taken and returned and through this we nova got a republican delegation from iowa in congress and I 1 was one of the members mem pers saon alter after this I 1 think said senator allison the other states of the north adopted the same rule as to taking the votes of the soldiers in the field but I 1 believe that iowa was the first to attempt this and that I 1 may to a certain extent be called the author of the movement at any rate in was through this that I 1 came to congress and I 1 I 1 have been here with the exception of the two years between 1871 and 1872 from that time to this DOES PUBLIC LIFE PAY it is nearly thirty three years since you were elected senator that is a full generation now look back will yo you over your career do you think it has paid you to be a public man I dont know replied senator alli alii son reflectively 1 I have thought of it many times and I 1 have sometimes decided that it has not it has been pleasant in im inmany many ways burrit but it has often seemed tome that it would have bave been better lor for me had I 1 closed my public career with my term in the mouse house there is really a great deal of hard work connected with congress and my life in the senate has been one of hard work and much worry when I 1 left the house in 1871 twenty four years ago I 1 was you might say at the beginning of my prime had I 1 dropped pa politics itice and devoted myself to my profession of the law I 1 would certainly be a much richer man than I 1 am today I 1 think perhaps I 1 would have been happier THE presidency still senator you have had all that public life gives to any one with the exception of the presidency and you may have that but I 1 am not a candidate for the presidency replied senator allison no no not in any sense of the word I 1 have never looked upon the white house as many other public men do I 1 doubt much concerning the happiness that is supposed to come with the presidential office I 1 have known many presidents I 1 have been acquainted with them before they went into office and I 1 have known them after they came out I 1 have seen them go into the wi ite house happy and proud in their power and in their possibilities of accomplishing comp lishing great things I 1 have seen them come out disappointed and dis di gusted austed I 1 do not know that I 1 would care for the presidency if I 1 could have it it is certainly not a place that I 1 for I 1 am in the senate edw ny and I 1 feel that my state will probably keep me there as long as I 1 desire to stay my experience there is worth something I 1 hardly feel that my work is ended yet and the presidential position should be for the rounding out of ones career the ex president has no place to fill in our political activity and with the single exception perhaps of john quincy adams there are none of our presidents who have accomplished much of statesmanship after they have left the white house it is the general idea that the president should be a dignified monument of that which has been and in a certain sense this is right NO SECOND TERM but many presidents have had second terms said lo 10 I 1 1 I do not believe in that at all replied senator allison A president should not be reelected elected re and it would be better for the country if this was a thoroughly understood fact we are always bound to be governed by one of three great parties the president is the choice ot of one of these parties and the mat man who strives lor for reelection election re is tempted to use the machinery of the office for his own personal ends in justice to his party parly and to the country I 1 do dot think that a president can be a candidate for a second term THE republican OUTLOOK speaking of parties senator what is the outlook of the republican party today Is it healthy 1 I think it is in a perfectly healthy condition replied senator allison and I 1 there is no doubt as to what it will do in the coming presidential campaign compa ign it will be united and I 1 do not believe that there is any doubt as to its success A ido I do you not think there will soon be a change of parties 4 in p the united are not the east and west drifting apart will we not have a party of the east and the west no I 1 think |
