CHAPTER 13
THE SACRIFICE OF GENERAL ALGER TO APPEASE POLITICAL BLOOD HOWLERS
THE HISPANO-AMERICAN War broke. I was in Spain when the Maine was blown up. Proceeding almost directly to Egypt I found there John Hay and Dr. James B. Angell. I was not of their party, but went to Damascus at the same time that they did and also up the Nile. When I returned to Cairo I found a letter from General Alger asking me to return home and on the way to obtain, if possible, certain information in Italy, France, Spain, Germany and particularly in England. Our Government had reports from its officials upon phases of conditions in those countries and wished the views of others and facts they might gather to use in checking up.
I found everywhere I went in Italy a profound and natural sympathy for Spain. In Germany I found the people and many officials friendly to the United States. In Spain I was to ascertain what might be their ability to sustain the war, and reported great internal weakness, both of physical power and political harmony. Her colonies had drained Spain of her honor and her young manhood until to lose them was welcomed. Their government had been used as a means to political debt paying, and the feeling was that nobody higher up went to the colonies except to feather his nest.
I did witness a funny incident in Huelva. A story teller was entertaining a big crowd talking about the war. He told them that America was about the size of Andalusia and that the people were all shopkeepers; rich, dishonest, cowardly and soft-handed. One big warship they had, he said, and upon it they would sail forth to battle with the Spanish navy. In just a little bit their blood would flow like the juice of a crushed grape, and the war would be over, and Spain would have America in her possession again as she did before it was stolen from her. The crowd cheered this recital with sharpened screams.
My surprise was complete in England. So far as I could determine the government was diplomatically friendly, but the people sympathized with Spain. I talked with hundreds of them of all strata. We had no friends among them so far as I could find. On the English steamer, upon which I returned to America, I canvassed every passenger and did not find one friend. They hoped the Yankees’ swelled heads would be reduced and freely predicted final victory on the sea for the Spaniards.
Proceeding at once to Lansing I offered my services to Governor Pingree. He tendered me commissions at three different times and on one occasion he was supported by General E. M. Irish in urging me to accept. I had received some military training in the College Cadets at Purdue under Dr. Harvey W. Wiley, as captain, and I was eager to go to war. Just as I was about to accept a commission, William Jennings Bryan became a colonel. Thereupon several of my friends, who by ridicule and otherwise had been endeavoring to dissuade me from going, remarked with disgust that every cheap politician in the country was grandstanding the war. Somehow or other that shot struck home; not that I thought of Mr. Bryan as a cheap politician, but I knew the place offered to me was earnestly sought by several better equipped than I was, and it began to impress me. So I refused the commission, but offered to enlist as a private. The Governor, who was a practical soldier, told me the time might come when I could do that with propriety, but that just now I could render better service at home. As a result, I became active in organizing and assisted in raising two companies, the officers of which the Governor consulted with me about before he named them.
Quickly the war was over. There had not been a battle severe enough to attract public attention from the minor discomforts of war: sickness in camp and quality of food. Some one found a can of Chicago corned beef that emitted gas when it was punctured for opening. It was one of the few cans that did not stand the sub-tropics. A round robin was hatched in Cuba. Once started there was an epidemic of criticism. There had to be a scapegoat of the administration. General Alger, of Michigan, was Secretary of War. He was a Civil War veteran with a brilliant record, had subscribed thousands to the McKinley campaign fund when Mark Hanna was raising it, and was really possessed of solid ability and sound sense. Although he wrought himself into a sick bed and continued to work when unfit and endangering his life as much as upon a battlefield, the storm settled upon him. Every result of the antebellum carelessness, inefficiency, insufficiency and unpreparedness was charged up to him.
One day soon after the last private staggered off the transports at Montauk Point, I received a telegram from the Secretary of War asking me to come to Patterson, New Jersey, where he was to spend a week-end at the home of Vice-President Hobart. I proceeded there at once. General Henry M. Duffield, of Detroit, had been summoned also. He was not only a friend but an intimate political adviser of General Alger, and a dependable, influential and intellectual gentleman. It did not take us long to ascertain that President McKinley had yielded to the pressure and had made up his mind to dump his Secretary of War as a sacrifice. He had asked Vice-President Hobart to break the news to General Alger, and that was the object of the week-end conference. When Hobart told Secretary Alger the lay of the land, the General’s care at losing his place in the cabinet was as nothing compared with his personal disappointment in McKinley. It was the only time I ever heard General Alger swear and it was rather pleasant to listen to him as he relieved his feelings.
“Why, it was as late as Thursday that the President put his arms around me and told me not to pay any attention to the attacks of the press,” he said, sadly and bitterly.
Continuing, General Alger said the President told him of his confidence and admiration.
“When I offered to resign, which I did in good heart,” said Secretary Alger, “the President would not hear of it, and professed to be pained and embarrassed by the idea and asked me as a favor to say no more about it and not to think of leaving the cabinet.”
Vice-President Hobart told me that the President had made up his mind some time before that he would have to feed General Alger to the clamorers, egged on in doing so by Senator Hanna and all the administration advisers, but that it was only on the previous Thursday that he had asked Hobart to get Alger out smoothly—the same day the President had caressingly assured the General of his confidence, affection and support.
Of course, Vice-President Hobart told General Alger all the facts. It made him so angry that he decided not to resign, but instead to make all the trouble he could. General Duffield and I permitted time enough to elapse to cool General Alger’s fighting blood, and then we advised him to resign, and to return to Michigan where the people loved him and trusted him, and we predicted that they would vindicate him by sending him to the United States Senate. Always amenable to reason, General Alger looked at the matter as we did and decided to resign.
I asked him what, in his opinion, caused the bitter attacks of the New York papers to center upon himself, when the editors certainly possessed the knowledge that he was not to blame for the natural hurts of years of loose departmental administration, and poverty of imagination and anticipation. General Alger replied that he was certain about what caused it. Bids for transporting to Spain the Spanish soldiers captured during the war were asked for. The shipping trusts submitted exorbitant figures. A Spanish steamship company proposed to do the job for much less and got the contract, in spite of threats made by the robbers. Thereupon certain of the New York press discovered that General Alger could not be controlled and at the same time decided that he was not competent, and would have to go. It was the McKinley campaign fund talking and its speech was effective. Nor did it matter whether such a trifling thing occurred as the destruction of a man’s reputation.
Upon my return to Michigan I saw Governor Pingree and Secretary Stone and others, and arrangements were begun for the big homecoming reception of General Alger, that was soon given to him by Detroit. Nothing could have been easier. General Alger was Michigan’s most loved citizen. They sensed the unjustness of his treatment and resented, as a quickly generous people would do.
Then followed the working out of the plans to send General Alger to the Senate. He sent for me and requested me to be his campaign manager. There were many reasons why I could not do so; chiefly I knew that it would be necessary to use all the Pingree organization that existed, and I did not control it. General Alger would not hear to my objections. My appeal was then to Henry B. Ledyard. When I told Mr. Ledyard my reasons, and informed him that in my opinion William Judson, of Washtenaw, would be the best man that could be obtained, he agreed with me, and got General Alger to consent. Judson conducted a shrewd campaign against the McMillan-Ferry combination and was able to defeat D. M. Ferry, though not easily.
