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"I have your delightful scrawl before me again, and whenever I see the name of Hanna there comes before me your goodnatured face and kindly bearing, the influence of which is to impel me to pack my satchel and go to Cleveland, where I can see you in the flesh, but duty rides me as if I were a flagging steed and had some devil mounted on me with whip and spur to hound me on. Never mind, the day is coming when I will have some time to devote to my friends, and the night is approaching when there will be a long rest and a delightful sleep on the bosom of our common mother. Whether all there is of us will lie down to that delightful slumber I do not know, but I know that there is in us a spark of divinity which shall vitalize a new-born man, and that together you and I will stroll along by the still waters of another world. Of course you will have a higher degree of happiness and better luck there, just as you have here, and that you will deserve there, even as you do here."

In February, 1891, Mr. Butterworth deals with the political situation in Ohio in the following terms: "Touching politics, you will see that the champion of forgery is still splashing in the waters and aspiring to that which only good men ought to attain to. John Sherman is as usual playing fast and loose. There is a struggle going on in regard to the postmastership in Cincinnati. Sherman is afraid of McKinley and worried about Harrison. McKinley is troubled about both Harrison and Sherman, and Sherman is as anxious to be President and continued in the Senatorial office as ever he was in his life, so that none of them exercises any influence with reference to clean and honorable politics, but simply play in the game."

A little later Mr. Butterworth, having failed of reëlection to Congress, was appointed, partly, it would appear, owing to Mr. Hanna's influence, to an official position with the Columbian Exposition Company; and on March 18, 1891, he writes from Chicago the following characteristic letter to Mr. Hanna:

"MY DEAR HANNA:

"March 18, 1891.

"It is not probable that you are in a frame of mind that would enable you to enjoy a line from an old friend, who snatches

a minute from an hour heavily mortgaged to other duties to tumble upon you a few rambling observations. Well! Mark, I am out of the procession. I no longer keep the lock-step prescribed by party discipline nor wear the fetters of a political bondsman. As Uncle John said (not meaning a word of it), 'I can now say just what I d-n please.' I would have added, if I had been in Uncle John's pants, 'so long as no one hears me.' I am out of it, and, my dear friend, I feel like a tired harvester at set of sun, when the cradle has been thrown aside, and he tumbles on the grass beneath some spreading tree.

"I met and lunched with our good friend Governor Merriam. He thinks you are one of the best fellows on earth, in fact, he said so; and I hadn't the heart to correct him. And to-day, so far as any remark of mine is concerned, Governor Merriam thinks his eulogy of you was approved of by me.

"It is seven o'clock P.M. I am here alone. The shadows of night have settled on this restless city. I feel less alone here communing with you, breaking your rest, than if I was in the motley throng that gathers nightly at the Palmer House."

Letters such as those of Mr. Butterworth are unique in Mr. Hanna's correspondence. He received, of course, many letters overflowing with expressions of personal feeling, but the letters which he received from political friends and associates refer merely to matters of temporary political and personal business. This is particularly true in respect to his correspondence with Mr. McKinley. Only about a score of letters and some four telegrams written by Mr. McKinley to Mr. Hanna have been preserved; and the great majority of these are trivial in character. It is, consequently, impossible to find any significant indications in their correspondence of the increasing intimacy between the two men. Mr. McKinley was in all his political relations an extremely wary man. He early adopted the practice of not committing to paper any assertions or promises which might subsequently prove to be embarrassing; and even in the case of important conversations over the telephone, he frequently took the precaution of having a witness at his end of the line. It is scarcely to be expected that any letters of his will be of much assistance, either to his own

biographer or that of any political associate-in spite of, or rather because of, the fact that McKinley late in his life wrote too many of his letters with a biographer so much in mind.

All important matters were discussed between the two men in private conference. When a personal interview was impossible, a confidential intermediary was usually employed. Such methods of correspondence suited Mr. Hanna as well as Mr. McKinley, not because he was to the same extent a man of caution and precaution, but because in business he had been accustomed to settling important affairs by means of personal interviews. As in the case of almost all genuine Americans, his natural method of expression was the spoken word, not only because the spoken word was direct and frank, but because it carried with it the force of a man's will and personality. Letters were merely the forerunners and the consequences of personal interviews, or else a sort of hyphen between them.

A majority of the surviving letters written by Mr. McKinley to Mr. Hanna date, however, from this particular period. During 1889 and 1890, Mr. McKinley spent most of his time in Washington, and was, consequently, obliged to write some few notes to Mr. Hanna about patronage, and about such legislative matters as the metal schedules of the tariff bill. Later, when one of them was living in Canton and the other in Cleveland, they were connected by a special telephone service. Some of the notes of this period may be quoted, not because of their intrinsic importance, but merely as a sample of the sort of letter which Mr. McKinley was in the habit of writing to his friend.

During the fall of 1890 he was fighting hard for reëlection to Congress, and Mr. Hanna was naturally taking an active interest in his canvass. The following note was written in Cleveland, on the occasion of a short visit, unexpectedly made by Mr. McKinley during Mr. Hanna's absence.

"DEAR MR. HANNA:

"CLEVELAND, Oct. 6, 1890.

"Awfully sorry not to see you. Came up last night and have remained until the last moment and find that you will not be home until evening. Would stay longer, but have a meeting to-night.

"Frank Osborne will talk to you fully and he will explain to you all. I start out to-morrow for the remainder of the campaign. The outlook is surprisingly favorable.

"Your friend,

"W. MCKINLEY, JR."

A little over a month later, after he had been defeated for reelection to Congress, he wrote to Mr. Hanna as follows:

"MY DEAR MR. HANNA:

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"CHICAGO, ILL., Nov. 12, 1890.

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"I have your kind favor of Nov. 10. I am here for a little rest sorry not to have seen you when last in Cleveland may run up there before my return to Washington, but am not certain. At all events I will see you.

"I agree with you that defeat under the circumstances was for the best.

"With kind regards
"I am sincerely

"W. MCKINLEY."

"P. S. There is no occasion for alarm. We must take no backward step."

Evidently from the foregoing note Mr. Hanna had not been at all discouraged by the Republican defeat in the fall of 1890at least in so far as Major McKinley's political future was concerned. He evidently argued that inasmuch as the legislation with which McKinley's name was associated had been disapproved by public opinion, it was just as well for McKinley to retire from a region of political action in which he had incurred unpopularity, and to continue his career in some other part of the political battlefield. At all events the plan rapidly took shape of nominating McKinley for governor in the summer of 1891; and this plan was successfully accomplished. The Convention was held in June, and the Major was placed at the head of the ticket, practically without opposition. He was not opposed by Foraker; that gentleman had other irons in the fire. The Legislature elected in the fall of 1891 named a Senator to succeed Mr. Sherman; and Mr. Foraker was anticipating and seeking an en

larged sphere of usefulness in Washington. The very fact which may have smoothed the way for the nomination of McKinley threatened the political future of another of Mr. Hanna's political friends - John Sherman himself.

In the campaign which followed, Mr. Hanna had, consequently, two objects to accomplish, both of which demanded unusual efforts. It was extremely necessary to elect Mr. McKinley. His political future was not necessarily compromised by the unpopularity of the McKinley Bill and his failure to be returned to the House of Representatives, because a turn of the tide might bring his policy of high protectionism back into favor. But a defeat in his candidacy for governor might well be disastrous to the presidential candidacy, which both of the friends already had in mind. It would create the impression of an insecure hold on the people of his own state, and thereafter it would be difficult to keep his figure before the public as a presidential possibility. Yet there was no certainty of McKinley's election. Republicanism was suffering a temporary eclipse all over the country. Foraker had been defeated two years before. The state of Ohio, which was always Republican on presidential years, frequently disconcerted the party machine by going Democratic on off years.

But the sentorial fight complicated the election still further, and aroused in Mr. Hanna an almost equal interest. He continued to be a close political friend of Senator Sherman, and for personal reasons ardently desired both the victory of the Senator and the defeat of Mr. Foraker. The failure to reëlect Mr. Sherman after his long service in the Senate would in Mr. Hanna's eyes have been a disgrace to his native state. Yet in order to return Mr. Sherman to the Senate, it was necessary to canvass the whole state by districts, and to see that enough candidates for the Legislature were pledged to vote for him.

In the campaign of 1891 Mr. Hanna gave even more of his time to Senator Sherman's candidacy than he did to that of Major McKinley. He undoubtedly took much more pains to secure Mr. McKinley's election than he did in the case of an ordinary Republican candidate; but his efforts for his friend were confined chiefly to raising money. He could trust the State Committee to work hard for the regular candidate for governor.

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