Upon his return from one of his several foreign journeys a party of
some hundred or more of his immediate personal friends gave him a
private dinner at a famous uptown restaurant. I was placed next him at
table. It goes without saying that we had all sorts of a good time—he
Cæsar and I Brutus—the prevailing joke the entente between the two.
“I think,” he began his very happy speech, “that I am the bravest man
that ever lived, for here I have been sitting three hours by the side
of Brutus—have repeatedly seen him clutch his knife—without the blink
of an eye or the turn of a feature.”
To which in response when my turn came I said: “You gentlemen seem to
be surprised that there should be so perfect an understanding between
our guest and myself. But there is nothing new or strange in that. It
goes back, indeed, to his cradle and has never been disturbed
throughout the intervening years of political discussion—sometimes
acrimonious. At the top of the acclivity of his amazing career—in the
very plenitude of his eminence and power—let me tell you that he
offered me one of the most honorable and distinguished appointments
within his gift.”
“Tell them about that, Marse Henry,” said he.
“With your permission, Mr. President, I will,” I said, and continued:
“The centenary of the West Point Military Academy was approaching. I
was at dinner with my family at a hotel in Washington when General
Corbin joined us. ‘Will you,’ he abruptly interjected, ‘accept the
chairmanship of the board of visitors to the academy this coming June?’
“‘What do you want of me?’ I asked.
“‘It is the academy’s centenary, which we propose to celebrate, and we
want an orator.’
“‘General Corbin,’ said I, ‘you are coming at me in a most enticing
way. I know all about West Point. Here at Washington I grew up with it.
I have been fighting legislative battles for the Army all my life. That
you Yankees should come to a ragged old rebel like me for such a
service is a distinction indeed, and I feel immensely honored. But
which page of the court calendar made you a plural? Whom do you mean by
“we”?’
“‘Why,’ he replied in serio-comic vein, ‘the President, the Secretary
of War and Me, myself.’
“I promised him to think it over and give him an answer. Next day I
received a letter from the President, making the formal official tender
and expressing the hope that I would not decline it. Yet how could I
accept it with the work ahead of me? It was certain that if I became a
part of the presidential junket and passed a week in the delightful
company promised me, I would be unfit for the loyal duty I owed my
belongings and my party, and so reluctantly—more reluctantly than I can
tell you—I declined, obliging them to send for Gen. Horace Porter and
bring him over from across the ocean, where he was ably serving as
Ambassador to France. I need not add how well that gifted and versatile
gentleman discharged the distinguished and pleasing duty.”