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190 pages

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pubOne.info present you this new edition. For many years my friends have insisted upon my putting in permanent form the incidents in my life which have interested them. It has been my good fortune to take part in history-making meetings and to know more or less intimately people prominent in world affairs in many countries. Every one so situated has a flood of recollections which pour out when occasion stirs the memory. Often the listeners wish these transcribed for their own use.

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Histoire

USA

History of the Americas

États-Unis

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Publié par	Pub One Info
Date de parution	06 novembre 2010
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9782819936640
Langue	English

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MY MEMORIES OF EIGHTY YEARS
BY
CHAUNCEY M. DEPEW
TO MY WIFE MAY PALMER DEPEW
THIS BOOK GREW FROM HER ENCOURAGEMENT
FOREWORD
For many years my friends have insisted upon myputting in permanent form the incidents in my life which haveinterested them. It has been my good fortune to take part inhistory-making meetings and to know more or less intimately peopleprominent in world affairs in many countries. Every one so situatedhas a flood of recollections which pour out when occasion stirs thememory. Often the listeners wish these transcribed for their ownuse.
My classmate at Yale in the class of 1856, John D.Champlin, a man of letters and an accomplished editor, rescued frommy own scattered records and newspaper files material for eightvolumes. My secretary has selected and compiled for publication twovolumes since. These are principally speeches, addresses, andcontributions which have appeared in public. Several writers,without my knowledge, have selected special matter from thesevolumes and made books.
Andrew D. White, Senator Hoar, and Senator Foraker,with whom I was associated for years, have published full andvaluable autobiographies. I do not attempt anything so elaborate orcomplete. Never having kept a diary, I am dependent upon a goodmemory. I have discarded the stories which could not well bepublished until long after I have joined the majority.
I trust and earnestly hope there is nothing in theserecollections which can offend anybody. It has been my object so topicture events and narrate stories as to illumine the periodsthrough which I have passed for eighty-eight years, and the peoplewhom I have known and mightily enjoyed.
C. M. D.
MY MEMORIES OF EIGHTY YEARS
I. CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH
It has occurred to me that some reminiscences of along life would be of interest to my family and friends.
My memory goes back for more than eighty years. Irecall distinctly when about five years old my mother took me tothe school of Mrs. Westbrook, wife of the well-known pastor of theDutch Reformed church, who had a school in her house, within a fewdoors. The lady was a highly educated woman, and her husband,Doctor Westbrook, a man of letters as well as a preacher. Hespecialized in ancient history, and the interest he aroused inRoman and Greek culture and achievements has continued with me eversince.
The village of Peekskill at that time had betweentwo and three thousand inhabitants. Its people were nearly allRevolutionary families who had settled there in colonial times.There had been very little immigration either from other States orabroad; acquaintance was universal, and in the activities of thechurches there was general co-operation among the members. Churchattendance was so unanimous that people, young or old, who failedto be in their accustomed places on Sunday felt the disapproval ofthe community.
Social activities of the village were very simple,but very delightful and healthful. There were no very rich nor verypoor. Nearly every family owned its own house or was on the way toacquire one. Misfortune of any kind aroused common interest andsympathy. A helping hand of neighborliness was always extended tothose in trouble or distress. Peekskill was a happy community andpresented conditions of life and living of common interest,endeavor, and sympathy not possible in these days of restlesscrowds and fierce competition.
The Peekskill Academy was the dominant educationalinstitution, and drew students not only from the village but from adistance. It fitted them for college, and I was a student there forabout twelve years. The academy was a character-making institution,though it lacked the thoroughness of the New England preparatoryschools. Its graduates entering into the professions or businesshad an unusual record of success in life. I do not mean that theyaccumulated great fortunes, but they acquired independence and wereprominent and useful citizens in all localities where theysettled.
I graduated from the Peekskill Academy in 1852. Ifind on the programme of the exercises of that day, which some oldstudent preserved, that I was down for several original speeches,while the other boys had mainly recitations. Apparently my teachershad decided to develop any oratorical talent I might possess.
I entered Yale in 1852 and graduated in 1856. Thecollege of that period was very primitive compared with theuniversity to which it has grown. Our class of ninety-seven wasregarded as unusually large. The classics and mathematics, Greekand Latin, were the dominant features of instruction. Athletics hadnot yet appeared, though rowing and boat-racing came in during myterm. The outstanding feature of the institution was the literarysocieties: the Linonia and the Brothers of Unity. The debates atthe weekly meetings were kept up and maintained upon a high andefficient plane. Both societies were practically deliberativebodies and discussed with vigor the current questions of the day.Under this training Yale sent out an unusual number of men whobecame eloquent preachers, distinguished physicians, and famouslawyers. While the majority of students now on leaving collegeenter business or professions like engineering, which is allied tobusiness, at that time nearly every young man was destined for theministry, law, or medicine. My own class furnished two of the ninejudges of the Supreme Court of the United States, and a largemajority of those who were admitted to the bar attained judicialhonors. It is a singular commentary on the education of that timethat the students who won the highest honors and carried off thecollege prizes, which could only be done by excelling in Latin,Greek, and mathematics, were far outstripped in after-life by theirclassmates who fell below their high standard of collegiatescholarship but were distinguished for an all-around interest insubjects not features in the college curriculum.
My classmates, Justice David J. Brewer and JusticeHenry Billings Brown, were both eminent members of the SupremeCourt of the United States. Brewer was distinguished for the widerange of his learning and illuminating addresses on publicoccasions. He was bicentennial orator of the college and a mostacceptable one. Wayne MacVeagh, afterwards attorney-general of theUnited States, one of the leaders of the bar, also one of the mostbrilliant orators of his time, was in college with me, though not aclassmate. Andrew D. White, whose genius, scholarship, andorganization enabled Ezra Cornell to found Cornell University, wasanother of my college mates. He became one of the most famous ofour diplomats and the author of many books of permanent value. Myfriendship with MacVeagh and White continued during their lives,that is, for nearly sixty years. MacVeagh was one of the readiestand most attractive of speakers I ever knew. He had a very sharpand caustic wit, which made him exceedingly popular as anafter-dinner speaker and as a host in his own house. He made everyevening when he entertained, for those who were fortunate enough tobe his guests, an occasion memorable in their experience.
John Mason Brown, of Kentucky, became afterwards theleader of the bar in his State, and was about to receive fromPresident Harrison an appointment as justice of the Supreme Courtwhen he died suddenly. If he had been appointed it would have beena remarkable circumstance that three out of nine judges of thegreatest of courts, an honor which is sought by every one of thehundreds of thousands of lawyers in the United States, should havebeen from the same college and the same class.
The faculty lingers in my memory, and I have thesame reverence and affection for its members, though sixty-fiveyears out of college, that I had the day I graduated. Ourpresident, Theodore D. Woolsey, was a wonderful scholar and a mostinspiring teacher. Yale has always been fortunate in herpresidents, and peculiarly so in Professor Woolsey. He had personaldistinction, and there was about him an air of authority andreserved power which awed the most radical and rebellious student,and at the same time he had the respect and affection of all. Inhis historical lectures he had a standard joke on the Chinese, thenarration of which amused him the more with each repetition. It wasthat when a Chinese army was beleaguered and besieged in a fortresstheir provisions gave out and they decided to escape. They selecteda very dark night, threw open the gates, and as they marched outeach soldier carried a lighted lantern.
In the faculty were several professors of remarkableforce and originality. The professor of Greek, Mr. Hadley, fatherof the distinguished ex-president of Yale, was more than hiscolleagues in the thought and talk of the undergraduates. Hislearning and pre-eminence in his department were universallyadmitted. He had a caustic wit and his sayings were the currenttalk of the campus. He maintained discipline, which was quite laxin those days, by the exercise of this ability. Some of the boysonce drove a calf into the recitation-room. Professor Hadleyquietly remarked: “You will take out that animal. We will get alongto-day with our usual number. ” It is needless to say that no suchexperiment was ever repeated.
At one time there was brought up in the facultymeeting a report that one of the secret societies was about to borean artesian well in the cellar of their club house. It wassuggested that such an extraordinary expense should be prohibited.Professor Hadley closed the discussion and laughed out the subjectby saying from what he knew of the society, if it would hold a fewsessions over the place where the artesian well was projected, theboring would be accomplished without cost. The professor was asympathetic and very wise adviser to the students. If any one wasin trouble he would always go to him and give most helpfulrelief.
Professor Larned inspired among the students adiscriminating taste for the best English literature and an ardentlove for its classics. Profess