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years later charges of favoritism in the deposit of the county funds with the various banks were again made; but these charges made no particular mention of the Union National Bank. They were denied and did not prevent Mr. Kimberley's reelection.

During these years Mr. Hanna became probably as influential in local politics as any other one man in Cleveland. He was accused by the Plain-Dealer of being the local Republican "boss"; but the accusation was merely the natural partisan abuse of a man whose aggressive personality gave emphasis to his actual influence. He was in no sense of the word a "boss," although he may have been politically the most influential private citizen of Cleveland. Even the foregoing statement of his standing is probably an exaggeration. Whatever power he possessed in local politics was due, not to the building up of a personal machine, but to the fact that behind him were the more important business men of Cleveland. Among the professional politicians he had a few friends and many enemies. The politicians needed him, because he was personally a generous contributor and an unexcelled collector of funds; but they never recognized him as their leader.

The Republican organization in Cleveland was always unruly. The success of the party in local campaigns was continually being compromised by factional fights, revolts against regular nominations, and unexpected ebullitions of popular independence. In the spring of 1887, for instance, the Republicans nominated, apparently under Mr. Hanna's influence, William M. Bayne as their candidate for Mayor. Mr. Bayne was described to be a very honest man, but one who made his living out of politics. He proved to be a weak candidate and was decisively defeated.

Later in the same year Mr. Bayne was instrumental in altering the nominating machinery of the Cleveland Republicans in a manner which would now be considered most praiseworthy. As a means of stopping the abuse of packed caucuses a system of direct primaries was proposed and accepted by the Republican voters. The system had originated in Crawford County, Pennsylvania, and was named after its place of origin. Later many attempts were made to abolish the plan, but they were

unsuccessful. Mr. Hanna himself came eventually to oppose it; but when it was first introduced he probably approved of it. Its sponsor, Mr. Bayne, was so closely associated with him that the two men presumably were agreed upon the desirability of the reform. It unquestionably served its intended purpose of doing away with packed caucuses; but it made the Republican party of Cleveland more than ever unruly.

Whatever advantage Mr. Hanna may have derived from his association with Mr. Foraker did not last very long, because in the spring of 1888, soon after Mr. Foraker's second inauguration, the association itself was broken. Mr. Foraker states that the rupture of their personal and political friendship was brought about by a disagreement over the distribution of patronage; but while there developed a disagreement of this kind, which both divided Mr. Hanna from the Governor and brought him closer to Mr. McKinley, other causes contributed substantially to the break. Before coming, however, to these other and more important causes, an account must be given of the incident to which Mr. Foraker himself attributes the dissolution of their friendship.

The most lucrative office within the gift of the Governor of Ohio at that time was the oil inspectorship - an official who was paid by the fees of the oil refineries whose product he inspected, and who had the appointment of deputies to do the work throughout the state. When Mr. Foraker was first elected both Mr. Hanna and Mr. McKinley had a candidate for the job, the former's being Mr. W. M. Bayne and the latter's a Captain Smithnight. Mr. Hanna was for a while more energetic in opposing Mr. McKinley's candidate than he was in urging the claims of his own; but later he moderated his tone. In November, 1885, he wrote to the Governor-elect: "I had a call from Major McKinley and his oil inspector candidate. The Major is never behind-hand with his claims. I tell him he 'wants the earth,' and it looks as if I were getting about where I generally do in politics-'left' with no asset except my reputation of being a good fellow and always accommodating. However, I told McKinley I only cared for you in this matter." This letter was a prelude to the appointment of Captain Smithnight. It looks as if Mr. Hanna had withdrawn his claims,

in order to relieve the Governor from an embarrassing situation.

The same matter came up after Mr. Foraker's second election. Mr. McKinley considered himself entitled to Smithnight's reappointment. The Governor, who had been dissatisfied with his first appointee, was resolved this time to give the office to his own part of the state. Mr. Hanna thought the patronage should remain in Cleveland, but urged the claims of his own candidate, Bayne. Finally the Governor appointed George Cox, subsequently the Cincinnati "boss," to the inspectorship, without even notifying Mr. Hanna of his intention; and when the deputy-inspectorships came to be passed around, Bayne was as usual pushed aside for the benefit of Smithnight. Mr. Hanna was so much chagrined that he ran away from Cleveland, and he wrote to the Governor that he would scarcely dare to return, in case his recommendation was ignored in the matter of another deputyship. The whole incident must have been a blow to his local political prestige.

There is no evidence, however, that this incident alone would have been sufficient to sever the friendship between the two men. At most, it indicated that Mr. Foraker was looking elsewhere for the support which the satisfaction of his political ambition required. After the incident Mr. Hanna continued to write to the Governor in a friendly, almost an affectionate, manner. The final break did not take place until after the Convention of 1888; and it was due to disagreements which occurred during the meeting of the Convention. While the complete story of this disagreement cannot be told, the substance of it, which concerns Mr. Foraker's attitude towards the campaign on behalf of John Sherman's nomination, is well known and not at all obscure.

Mark Hanna's conviction that John Sherman could and should be nominated and elected to the presidency had not been shaken by the poor showing made by his candidate in the Convention of 1884. The result of the election of that year confirmed his belief in the desirability of Mr. Sherman's nomination in the interest of party success. Immediately after the defeat of James G. Blaine he had written to Mr. Foraker: “I feel sure now in looking back over the results of the campaign that John Sherman would have been the strongest candidate; and I

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believe that he will be the strongest man in 1888." The narrow margin and the peculiar circumstances of Mr. Blaine's defeat made it plausible that, if Mr. Sherman had been the candidate in 1884, he would have been elected.

Throughout the next few years the project of nominating Mr. Sherman grew upon Mr. Hanna. The idea appealed to him because of its apparent practicability, because of its peculiar desirability, and because the work demanded for its realization was suited to his opportunities and abilities. At that time he had no ambition or hope of personal preferment. He was a business man with a collateral interest in politics. As a business man he could not afford the time for a slow and steady climb up the political ladder. Nevertheless he wanted to be associated with large political events and achievements. If he was going to interest himself in electing other men to office, why not the biggest man he knew and the highest office in the land? Such a job would be more interesting than electing mayors or governors; and, if successful, he would obtain by virtue of the personal association an amount of prestige and power which he could not acquire in any other way.

I do not mean by the foregoing description of Mr. Hanna's motives that his work on behalf of Mr. Sherman was merely selfish. On the contrary, his motives in this as in the other large projects of his life were primarily disinterested. It was his disposition to do things for other people. But mixed with his disinterestedness was a large amount of ambition a keen desire for personal prestige and power. He seems at this time to have reached a fairly definite conclusion that the fulfilment of any personal political ambition must be dependent upon the contribution, which he could make to the political success of men like Foraker or Sherman. He could become a national political luminary only by attaching himself to a star of the first magnitude and shining by reflected light. In the spring of 1888 he wrote to Mr. Foraker and urged the Governor to persuade Russell A. Alger to retire in favor of Sherman. Mr. Alger's general position in politics was similar to his own: "Can you not," he said, "persuade Alger, if his strength is not encouraging, to go over to Sherman on the second ballot? Better for his future to be prominent in making a candidate than in

leading a forlorn hope. Better be a power with a man like Sherman than merely a prominent citizen of Michigan." He might have added from his own point of view "or of Ohio."

He was actively working on Mr. Sherman's behalf from 1885 to 1888. Soon after the Convention of 1884 Mr. Sherman told Mr. Foraker that he would be glad to make Mr. Hanna's acquaintance. A meeting soon followed. Mr. Hanna was frequently in Washington, and he used these and other opportunities to become still better acquainted with Mr. Sherman. In 1885, probably owing to the latter's influence, Mr. Hanna was appointed by President Cleveland one of the government directors of the Union Pacific Railroad.1 By 1887 the two men had become intimate enough to correspond freely and to exchange visits between Cleveland and Mansfield. The basis of this intimacy undoubtedly was Mr. Hanna's interest in Sherman's nomination. As the meeting of the Convention approached he gave more and more of his time to the work, and he not only contributed liberally to the expenses himself but he raised money among his business associates. Finally he was selected by the candidate as the manager of the campaign and as Mr. Sherman's personal representative at the Convention; but although almost all of Mr. Sherman's supporters approved of the selection, it was made practically by Mr. Hanna himself. He was more interested in Mr. Sherman's nomination and election than was any man in the country, Mr. Sherman alone excepted; and that interest had earned him his appointment. He had selected himself to be the leader of the Sherman forces by virtue of hard, enthusiastic and competent work.

A united delegation from Ohio was practically assured from the start. The President being a Democrat, there was no Republican candidate backed by the administration; and James G. Blaine, the only man who might have divided the allegiance of Ohio, was not allowing the use of his name. The way was

1 This appointment was an incident of his business, rather than of his political, career - although it was of course a recognition of political service. His duties as director took a great deal of his time, and his knowledge of the coal business resulted in his being placed at the head of a committee, which took special charge of the coal interests of the railroad. Its President, Mr. Charles Francis Adams, wrote with the warmest praise of his services in this matter to the railroad.

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