"As I congratulated him on his coming relief from the duties of his absorbing office, he said:
""Yes! I am glad of it; but there are so many things I wanted to accomplish which have not been accomplished."
"Then he went into extended remarks about the failure of the Senate to ratify the Arbitration plan. He said that there had been much work and anxiety in that movement that had never come to the surface; how they had waited for cablegrams, and how at the same time, although he had not expressed it, he had a presentiment that through the inaction of the Senate the splendid plan for the pacification of the world"s controversies would be a failure.
"He dwelt much upon the Cuban embroglio, and said that he had told the Committee on Foreign Relations that if they waited until spring they had better declare war, but that he would never be responsible for such a calamity.
"He said that he had chosen Princeton for his residence because he would find there less social obligation and less demand upon his financial resources than in a larger place. He said that in all matters of national as well as individual importance it was a consolation to him to know that there was an overwhelming Providence. When I congratulated him upon his continuous good health, notwithstanding the strain upon him for the eight years of his past and present administration, he said:
""Yes! I am a wonder to myself. The gout that used to distract me is almost cured, and I am in better health than when I entered office."
"He accounted for his good health by the fact that he had occasionally taken an outing of a few days on hunting expeditions.
"I said to him, "Yes! You cannot think of matters of State while out shooting ducks."
"He answered:
""No, I cannot, except when the hunting is poor and the ducks do not appear."
"May 21, 1896. This morning when I entered President Cleveland"s room at the White House, he said: "Good morning, I have been thinking of you this morning."
"The fact is he had under consideration the recall of a minister plenipotentiary from a European Government. I had an opportunity of saying something about a gentleman who was proposed as a subst.i.tute for the foreign emba.s.sy, and the President said my conversation with him had given him a new idea about the whole affair, and I think it kept the President from making a mistake that might have involved our Government in some entanglement with another nation.
"The President read me a long letter that he had received on the subject. I felt that my call had been providential, although I went to see him merely to say good-bye before he went away on his usual summer trip to Gray Gables, Buzzards Bay, Ma.s.sachusetts.
"The President is in excellent health although he says he much needs an outing. He is very fond of his children, and seemed delighted to hear of the good time I had with them at Woodley. When I told how Ruth and Esther sang for me he said he could not stand hearing them sing, as it was so touching it made him cry. I told him how the baby, Marian, looked at me very soberly and scrutinisingly as long as I held her in my arms, but when I handed her to her mother, the baby, feeling herself very safe, put out her hands to me and wanted to play. But what a season of work and anxiety it had been to the President, important question after question to be settled.
"March 1, 1897. I have this afternoon made my last call on President Cleveland. With Dr. Sunderland and the officers of our church I went to the White House to bid our retiring President goodbye.
Notwithstanding appointments he had made, Thurber, his private secretary, informed us that the President could not see us because of a sudden attack of rheumatism. But after Thurber had gone into the President"s room, he returned saying that the President would see Dr. Sunderland and myself. Indeed, afterwards, he saw all our church officers. But he could not move from his chair. His doctor had told him that if he put his foot to the floor he would not be able to attend the inauguration of Major McKinley on the following Thursday.
"After Dr. Sunderland and the officers of the church had shaken hands for departure, the President said to me:
""Doctor, remain, I want to see you."
"The door closed, he asked me if I had followed the Chinese Immigration Bill that was then under consideration. We discussed it fully. The President read to me the veto which he was writing. He stated to me his objection to the bill. Our conversation was intimate, but somewhat saddened by the thought that perhaps we might not meet again. With an invitation to come and see him at Princeton, we parted.
"During a conversation of an earlier period at the White House, I congratulated the President upon his improved appearance since returning from one of his hunting expeditions.
""Oh! Yes!" he said, "I cannot get daily exercise in Washington. It is impossible, so I am compelled to take these occasional outings. I approach the city on my return with a feeling that work must be pulled down over me, like a nightcap," and as he said this he made the motion as of someone putting on a cap over his head.
"I congratulated him on the effect of his proclamation on the Monroe Doctrine as it would set a precedent, and really meant peace. He agreed with me, saying:
""Yes, but they blame me very much for the excitement I have caused in business circles, and the failures consequent. But no one failed who was doing a legitimate business, only those collapsed who were engaged in unwarranted speculations. I wish more of those people would fail."
""Mr. President," I said, "I do not want to pry into State secrets, but I would like to know how many ducks you did shoot?" He laughed, and said, "Eleven. The papers said thirteen. Indeed, the country papers before I began to shoot said I had shot a hundred and twenty." I spoke of the brightness and beauty of his children again.
I remarked that the youngest one, then four months old, had the intelligence of a child a year old, and the President said:
""Yes, she is a great pleasure to us, and seems to know everything."
"March 3, 1896. Started from Washington for the great Home Missionary meeting to be held in Carnegie Hall, New York, President Cleveland to preside. We left on the eleven o"clock train, by Pennsylvania railroad. I did not go to the President"s private car until we had been some distance on our way, although he told me when I went in that he had looked for me at the depot, that I might as well have been in his car all the way. No one was with him except Mrs. Cleveland and his private secretary, Mr. Thurber, who is also one of my church. We had an uninterrupted conversation. The servants and guards were at the front end of the car, and we were at the rear.
"I asked the President if he found it possible to throw off the cares of office for a while. He laughed, and said:
""They call a trip of this kind a vacation;" then with a countenance of sudden gravity he added: "We no sooner get through one great question than another comes." It made me think of the tension on the President"s mind at that time. There was the Venezuelan question. There were suggestions of war with England, and then there was the Cuban matter with suggestions of war with Spain, and all the time the overshadowing financial questions.
"During our conversation the President referred to the conditions ever and anon inflicted upon him by newspaper misrepresentations, particularly those of inebriety, of domestic quarrels, of turning Mrs. Cleveland out of doors at night so that she had to flee for refuge to the house of Dr. Sunderland, my pastoral a.s.sociate, pa.s.sing the night there; and then the reports that his children were deaf and dumb, or imbecile, when he knew I had seen them and considered them the brightest and healthiest children I had known.
"All these attacks and falsehoods concerning the President and his family I saw hurt him as deeply as they would any of us, but he is in a position which does not allow him to make reply. I a.s.sured him that he was only in the line of misrepresentation that had a.s.sailed all the Presidents, George Washington more violently than himself, and that the words cynicism, jealousy, political hatred, and diabolism in general would account for all. I do think, however, that the factories of scandal had been particularly busy with our beloved President. They were running on extra time.
"If I were asked who among the mighty men at Washington has most impressed me with elements of power I would say Grover Cleveland.
"June 25, 1896. It seems now that Major McKinley, of Canton, Ohio, will be elected President of the United States. I was in Canton about three weeks ago and called at Major McKinley"s house. He was just starting from his home to call on me. He presided at the first lecture I delivered at Canton in 1871. On my recent visit he recalled all the circ.u.mstances of that lecture, remembering that he went to my room afterwards in the hotel, and had a long talk with me, which he said made a deep impression upon him.
"My visit at Canton three weeks ago was to lecture. Major McKinley attended and came upon the platform afterwards to congratulate me.
He is a Christian man and as genial and lovable a man as I ever met."
"September 21, 1897. Had a most delightful interview with President McKinley in the White House.
"I congratulated him on the peaceful opening of his administration.
He said:
""Yes! I hope it is not the calm before a storm."
"He said that during the last six weeks at least a half million of people had pa.s.sed before him, and they all gave signs of their encouragement. Especially, he said, the women and children looked and acted as though they expected better times.
"The President looked uncommonly well. I told him that during the past summer I had travelled in many of the states, and that from the people everywhere I gathered hopeful feelings. I told him that they were expecting great prosperity would come to the country through his administration."
Of course these are merely sc.r.a.ps torn from old note-books, but I cannot help commending the value of first impressions, of the first-hand reports, which are made in this way. There is in the unadorned picture of any incident in the past a sort of hallowed character that no ornate frame can improve.
So the pages of these recollections are but a string of impressions torn from old note-books and diaries.
From sc.r.a.p books and other sources, some other person may set up the last milestones of my journey through life, and think other things of enough importance to add to the furlongs I have already travelled; and I give permission to add that biography to this autobiography.
[Ill.u.s.tration: T. De Witt Talmage signature.]
A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF DR. TALMAGE"S LAST MILESTONES
BY
MRS. T. DEWITT TALMAGE
1898-1902