Made to fill vacancies caused by resignations 3,575
Removals 925
Deaths 229
Changes of names and sites 132
Establishment of new offices 586
—————
Total appointments 5,447
The number of offices in the late disloyal States is 8902, of which 1051
were reopened on November 15, 1865.
Number of route-agents, 387; aggregate compensation, $229,522. Number of
local agents, 51; aggregate compensation, $30,949. Number of special
agents, 33; aggregate compensation, $82,790. Number of baggage-masters,
110; aggregate compensation, $6600. Number of postal railway-clerks, 64;
aggregate compensation, $75,000.
JOHN MILTON NILES.—This gentleman was born in Windsor, Connecticut,
August 20, 1787, and was bred to the bar, and went to Hartford in 1816
to practise law; in 1817 he was there concerned in publishing the
“Times,” which he edited for a time; in 1820 he was appointed postmaster
at Hartford by President Jackson, and held the office until made a
Senator in Congress in 1835, in which position he remained until 1839;
in 1840 he was appointed postmaster-general by President Van Buren; in
1842 he was again elected to the United States Senate, served six years,
retired to private life, and died May 31, 1856.
FRANCIS GRANGER.—Born at Suffield, Connecticut, December 1, 1792;
graduated at Yale College in 1811; admitted to the bar in May, 1816; he
was elected a member of the New York Legislature in 1825, and again in
1826, 1827, 1829, and 1831; in 1828 he was a candidate for the office of
Lieutenant-Governor, but was defeated; and in 1830 and again in 1832 he
was run for Governor with the same result; in 1834 he was elected to
Congress; in 1836 he was a candidate for Vice-President, and received
the electoral votes of the States of Massachusetts, Vermont, New Jersey,
Delaware, Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky; he was again elected to Congress
in 1838 and in 1840; appointed postmaster-general March 6, 1841, but
resigned the following September. His successor in Congress thereupon
resigned, and Mr. Granger was again elected to that body. On the 4th of
March, 1843, he finally retired from public life.
Francis Granger, immediately on entering upon the duties of his office,
made the same discovery as had others before him,—that the postal
department was not self-sustaining. Had the postmaster-general been
acquainted with the business of the office before entering upon its
duties, he would have been fully enabled to reconcile the warring
elements of statistics and figures which the books of the office
presented. The post-office department is not a self-sustaining one, nor
will it be until there is a reconstruction of the whole system. In
several portions of this work we have alluded to some of the causes
tending to such deficiencies, and pointed out the remedy. As this
remedy, however, is connected with certain abuses not unknown to high
officials, it is questionable if any action will ever be taken upon it.
Mr. Granger says, “When first entering upon my official duties, my
attention was forced to the constant demands for payment beyond the
ability of the department to pay; and, with a view to ascertain as
nearly as might be its undisputed liabilities and probable means, on the
21st of March [1841] last a letter was addressed to the Auditor of the
Treasury for the post-office department, requesting from him information
on those subjects.”
Mr. Granger became considerably enlightened, no doubt, when the auditor
furnished him with the following, which he recognized thus:—“By an
examination of that statement, it will be seen that there was due and
unpaid to contractors of ascertained balances on the 1st of January last
the sum of $447,029, a considerable portion of which has been paid from
the revenues of the quarter ending on the 31st of March. A report from
the auditor upon the outstanding contracts will undoubtedly increase
this amount of indebtedness to a total exceeding _half a million_ of
dollars: in addition to which, heavy demands are frequently made on the
department upon unliquidated claims.” ... “Under these circumstances,”
he asks, “how is the department to be sustained under its present
embarrassments? and what are its financial hopes for the future?”
“He also states that the amount demanded by railroad companies for
transportation of the mails is more than two hundred per cent. higher
than is paid for coach service upon the roads connecting links between
different railroad companies upon the same main route, and that, too,
where the night-service upon the railroads is less than that performed
in coaches.” He illustrates this by the following:—“Boston is one of the
most important points of railroad concentration in the Union. Its
business prosperity is proverbial; and yet in that city the quarter
ending the 31st of March shows, as compared with the corresponding
quarter of the year before, a decrease in postage receipts of _three
thousand one hundred and ninety-five dollars_, being double the amount
of diminution to be found within the same time in any other post-office
in the nation, with the single exception of Philadelphia, which is
another great _terminus_ of railroad communication.”
CHARLES A. WICKLIFFE.—Born at Bardstown, Kentucky, June 8, 1788, and was
admitted to the bar at an early age. He was twice elected to the State
legislature during the war of 1812; he twice volunteered in the
Northwestern army, and was present at the battle of the Thames; in 1820
he was again elected to the legislature; in 1822 he was elected to
Congress, and was four times re-elected. During his service in that body
he was appointed by the House as one of the managers in the impeachment
of Judge Peck. Upon leaving Congress in 1833, he was again elected to
the legislature, and upon its assembling was chosen Speaker. In 1834 he
was elected Lieutenant-Governor of the State; and in 1839, by the death
of Governor Clark, he became acting Governor. He was appointed
postmaster-general September 13, 1841. In 1849 he was chosen as a
delegate to the Constitutional Convention of Kentucky; and under the new
Constitution he was appointed as one of the revisers of the statute laws
of the State.
This gentleman’s views of the postal department were more practical and
business-like than those of his predecessor. He says in his report,
dated December 2, 1841, “As has already been remarked, the original
design in the establishment of the post-office department was that its
income should be made to sustain its operations. That principle ought
never to be abandoned. Whilst the department should not be regarded as a
source of revenue to the nation, it never should become an annual charge
to the treasury. Upon assuming the discharge of the duties pertaining to
the office of postmaster-general, my first object was to investigate its
financial condition; and it becomes my duty to inform you that I did not
find it in that prosperous state which the demands upon it require.
“The income of this department is liable to be affected by the
fluctuations of the business of the country. It is increased or
depressed in proportion to the increase or depression of that business.”
Mr. Wickliffe also took another sensible view of the department: he
says, “Besides this cause of fluctuation in its income, other causes of
a reduction, more or less in every year, may be found in the increased
facilities which the travel upon railroads and steamboats furnishes for
the transmission of letters and newspapers by private conveyance;
secondly, in the great extension, to say nothing of the abuse, of the
FRANKING PRIVILEGE; thirdly, in the recent establishment of what are
called private expenses upon the great mail-routes of the United States;
fourthly, in the frauds practised upon the department in evading by
various devices the payment of the postage imposed by law.”
CAVE JOHNSON.—Born January 11, 1793, in Robertson county, Tennessee. His
opportunities for education were limited, but made available to the
greatest extent. In his youth he acted as deputy-clerk of the county,
his father being clerk. He was thence led to the study of the law. In
1813 he was appointed deputy-quartermaster in a brigade of militia
commanded by his father, and marched into the Creek nation under General
Jackson. He continued in this service until the close of the Creek War
in 1814. In 1816 he was admitted to the bar; in 1817 he was elected by
the legislature one of the attorneys-general of the State, which office
he held until elected a member of Congress in 1829. He was re-elected in
1831, 1833, and 1835, defeated in 1837, again elected in 1839, 1841, and
1843. Appointed postmaster-general March 5, 1845. In 1849 he served for
a few months as one of the circuit judges of Tennessee, and in 1853 was
appointed by the Governor and Senate as President of the Bank of
Tennessee, at Nashville.
JACOB COLLAMER.—Born at Troy, New York, about 1792, and removed in
childhood to Burlington, Vermont, with his father; graduated at the
State University at that place in 1810; served during the year 1812 a
frontier campaign as a lieutenant in the service of the United States;
admitted to the bar in 1813; practised law for twenty years, serving
frequently in the State legislature. In 1833 he was elected an associate
justice of the Supreme Court of the State, from which position he
voluntarily retired in 1842. In the course of that period he was also a
member of a convention held to revise the Constitution of the State. In
1843, elected to Congress to fill a vacancy, and re-elected for a full
term in 1844, and again in 1846. Appointed postmaster-general March 7,
1849,—thus forming one of the Cabinet of President Taylor. He resigned
in 1850, with the rest of the Cabinet, on the death of the President,
and was soon afterwards reappointed on the Supreme bench of his State,
which office he held until 1854, when he was elected a Senator in
Congress from Vermont for six years from 1855; and in 1861 he was
re-elected for the term ending in 1867, serving as chairman of the
Committee on Post-Offices and Post-Roads, also that on the Library, and
as a member of several other important committees. He received the
degree of LL.D. from the University of Vermont and from Dartmouth
College, New Hampshire.
He died on the 9th of November, 1865, at Woodstock, Vermont, in the
seventy-fourth year of his age. Mr. Collamer was one of the most
distinguished of our statesmen, and one of the oldest members of the
Senate.
NATHAN KELSEY HALL.—Born at Skaneateles, New York, March 28, 1810;
removed to Aurora, in the same State, in 1826, and commenced the study
of the law with Millard Fillmore; removed with the latter to Buffalo in
1830; admitted to the bar in 1832; appointed First Judge of the Court of
Common Pleas in 1841; in 1845 elected a member of the State legislature,
and in 1846 a member of Congress. He was appointed postmaster-general
July 20, 1850, and in 1852 United States Judge for the Northern District
of New York.
It was during his administration that the change was made in the rates
of postage, by making letter-postage three cents to every part of the
United States, except California and the Pacific Territories,—the weight
of letter one-half ounce, and prepaid.
SAMUEL DICKENSON HUBBARD.—Born at Middletown, Connecticut, August 10,
1799; graduated at Yale College in 1819. He was admitted to the bar in
1822, but subsequently engaged in manufacturing enterprises. He was
mayor of the city of Middletown, and held other offices of local trust.
In 1845 he was elected a member of Congress, and re-elected in 1847. He
was appointed postmaster-general September 14, 1852. Died at Middletown,
October 8, 1855.
JAMES CAMPBELL.—Born September 1, 1813, in the city of Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania; admitted to the bar in 1834, at the age of twenty-one
years; in 1841, at the age of twenty-eight, he was appointed Judge of
the Common Pleas Court for the city and county of Philadelphia, which
position he occupied for the term of nine years; in 1851, when the
Constitution of the State was changed, making the judiciary elective, he
was nominated by a State convention of his party as a candidate for the
Supreme Court of the State, but was defeated after a warmly-contested
and somewhat peculiar contest, securing, however, 176,000 votes; in
January, 1852, he was appointed Attorney-General of Pennsylvania, which
he resigned to assume the duties of postmaster-general: he was
appointed to that office on the 8th of March, 1853.
There was no particular feature in the postal department to render this
gentleman’s name in its connection popular during his term of office. It
is somewhat curious, however, that the administrations of Franklin
Pierce and James Buchanan—_both peculiarly political_—should have
furnished to the Southern Confederacy more prominent men who were
engaged with them in office than did all the other administrations
combined. Is this accident, design, or the effect of their political
education under their reign?
AARON VAIL BROWN.—Appointed postmaster-general under James Buchanan’s
administration in 1857; was born August 15, 1795, in Brunswick county,
Virginia; graduated at the University of North Carolina, at Chapel Hill,
in 1814; studied law and soon commenced practice in Nashville,
Tennessee; he was partner in the law business of the late President
Polk; served in almost all the sessions of the legislature of Tennessee
between 1821 and 1832; he was a member of the House of Representatives
from 1839 to 1845, and was in that year elected Governor of Tennessee.
In his first report as postmaster-general, made December 1, 1857, he
very modestly stated that, “entering on the administration of the
Post-Office Department,” he “ventured on no new theories, nor attempted
any innovations on the well-tried system established and practised upon”
by his predecessors.
It was during his administration that the route from New York to New
Orleans was considerably improved and transportation facilitated;[41]
also the mail-service on the Mississippi River below the Ohio was
materially changed and improved.
The overland mail-service to California by the Southern route by
contract became an agitating subject, and under proposals approved by an
act of Congress, March 3, 1857, various bids were made by parties for
carrying the mail. The contract was made on the 16th of September, 1857,
with certain parties, at a cost of $600,000 per annum. (_See Report for
the year 1857._)
JOSEPH HOLT succeeded Aaron Vail Brown, who died March, 1858, in
alluding to which Mr. Holt uses the following language:—
“POST-OFFICE DEPARTMENT,
December 3, 1859.
“SIR:—In the month of March last, the sudden decease of my enlightened
and deeply-lamented predecessor, immediately preceded as it was by the
death of the Third Assistant Postmaster-General,—so long and so
honorably connected with the administration of the postal
revenues,—filled this department with discouragement and gloom.
Associated with this double calamity came another, which awakened
painful anxieties, not only from its intrinsic magnitude, but from the
fact that the history of the government, from its foundation, furnished
no parallel for such a disaster. My allusion is, of course, to the
failure of Congress to pass the customary appropriation bill for the
support of the Post-Office Department, whereby, with all its
responsibilities resting upon it and the fulfilment of all its duties
demanded by the country, it was still deprived of the use of its own
revenues, and thus, necessarily, of all means of complying with its
engagements to the faithful officers toiling in its service. The ordeal
so unexpectedly prepared for it was, in all its aspects, as novel as it
was perplexing; and disquieting apprehensions were naturally felt for
the result.”
This was rather discouraging to Mr. Holt, who, however, displayed much
business tact and perseverance under the circumstances, for he
immediately issued the following notice:—
“TO POSTMASTERS AND OTHER AGENTS AND EMPLOYEES OF THE POST-OFFICE
DEPARTMENT.
“Congress having failed to make the necessary appropriation at its last
session for the publication of a Manual of Post-Offices, Laws, and
Regulations, now greatly needed, and the department not having
sufficient clerical force at its disposal for the preparation of such a
work, I have deemed it proper, in accordance with the course pursued by
two of my predecessors, to purchase, for the use of the department, the
necessary number of copies of a private edition, having first caused an
examination to be made as to its correctness.
“The volume now sent is adopted as official, and you will be guided by
it accordingly.
“J. HOLT, _Postmaster-General_.
“POST-OFFICE DEPARTMENT, May 15, 1859.”
The consequences resulting from the failure of Congress to make the
necessary appropriation alluded to by Mr. Holt were materially felt by
those who in good faith had performed their duty, by being compelled to
obtain advances on their claims at a fearful sacrifice. Mr. Holt,
alluding to this, says,—
“It is to be feared, however, that those whose circumstances obliged
them to dispose of these securities have in many cases been compelled
to submit to a heavy discount. I would most earnestly urge upon Congress
the necessity of making an early appropriation to meet all the existing
liabilities of the department. As the faith of the government has been
broken, not only should the principal of these debts be promptly paid,
but interest on them should also be allowed. In many instances this may
prove but an imperfect indemnity for the damage which the creditors of
the department have actually sustained; but this much, at least, is due,
from the gravest considerations of public justice and policy, and
cannot, in my judgment, be withheld without national dishonor.”
HORATIO KING was postmaster-general for a short time. He had, of course,
no opportunity of displaying those qualities which a long connection
with the postal department had enabled him to acquire. The appointment
of Montgomery Blair, which was a settled matter, as the successor of Mr.
Holt, limited his services. Glancing over official postal documents, we
find his name frequently coupled with important matters in the
department. It was during his short service as postmaster-general that
the celebrated additional articles were made to those of the convention
of March 2, 1857, between the post-office of the United States and the
general post-office of France. (_See Report of the Postmaster-General
for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1861._)
MONTGOMERY BLAIR.—This gentleman was appointed postmaster-general in
1861, forming one of the Cabinet under the administration of Abraham
Lincoln.
Perhaps history affords no parallel to the state of affairs in our
country when Abraham Lincoln took the Presidential chair. Our readers
are all familiar with the history of this rebellion. We will not go over
the grounds, dark and bloody as they are: suffice to say, the blow was
struck, and treason assumed a bold and formidable front. The
Constitution, even from its adoption, with all its amendments, has ever
been a fruitful subject of dispute, more particularly with those whose
interests were identified with the institution of slavery. To keep that
peculiar institution—a relic of barbarism—intact, with their ideas of
labor, men South advocated the idea that a sovereignty of States and
their separate independency of the Union were guaranteed to them by the
Constitution. This fatal error misled the ignorant: men of intellect,
men educated in the Union, living under its Constitution and heretofore
abiding by its laws, preached up a Utopian scheme to these misguided
men. The South was to become the Eden of the world, and slavery its
_Magna Charta_.
In the early part of Mr. Lincoln’s administration we edited a paper
established for the purpose of maintaining his position and opposing the
spirit of treason working its way North. We annex the following extract
from an editorial article we wrote in 1861, being one of the editors of
the “National Guard,” a paper devoted to the cause of the Union, the
whole Union, and nothing but the Union:—
“When this distinguished man was first nominated for the Presidency, the
grounds taken by the opposition were his abolition proclivities. Few
people in the North were willing that the institution of slavery should
go down beneath the Lincoln banner, and hence the increased opposition
to the nomination and the powerful efforts to frustrate his election.
_He was elected_: he became the President of these United States
lawfully in the sight of men and of nations, and equally so in the sight
of the Almighty. As President of the whole Union he took his seat. Men
who expected to hear the thundertones of his official voice, “down with
the South and slavery,” were surprised when they read his opinion upon
the subject as President, differing in some respects from that expressed
as a mere citizen. Being President, the various State interests had to
be consulted: the South was upheaving with the curse of slavery upon it,
and four millions of human beings were crying out for mercy. The
position in which Mr. Lincoln was placed was a most delicate one: he
could not maintain the high fanatical notions of many Northern men, nor
would he indorse the actions of the Southerners, who feared that if the
administration limited slavery it would ultimately lead to a decadency
in their trade in human flesh. This was the state of matters when, in
his appeal to the people for aid, he assured the South that he did not
intend, in his official capacity, to interfere with their peculiar
institution. Then the South dashed back the offered cup of peace
presented to them in good faith, and spurned the hand that held it
towards them. They feared the man; they feared the popular opinion
uprising against slavery, and, deeming a portion of the North favorable
to their cause, reared at once the standard of rebellion.
“Let our readers glance back to that period; let them take a view of a
tall, pale man seated in the chair of state; let them look into his
eyes, his soul, and see and even hear the beating pulse of the nation’s
heart in his every fibre; let them look out and over the land and hear
the maniacs of treason crying for his blood; let them look North, and
even there hear the rebel sympathizers breathing curses loud and deep;
let them read the first call for 75,000 troops, written with a nervous
hand and a quailing heart; then look! behold! a nation obeys the call of
the President, and the voice of the Union-loving people cheers and
upholds him in his seat. The rebels find _no open aid North_. Covert,
treacherous scoundrels, descendants of traitors, thieves, and
murderers, met, it is true, in secret councils, but soon fell into their
earthly hell before the indignant glance of an aroused people.
“Where now is slavery? Who struck at its very root and sent it shivering
into pieces throughout the land? The very men who perfected and planned
this revolution.
“Serpent-like, they bit themselves, and are now dying of the poison.
Throughout the whole of these trying scenes—from the firing on Fort
Sumter to the present—Abraham Lincoln has stood up firmly and
consistently for the nation. Party questions have been repudiated and
all sectional distinctions laid aside; for he had but one object, _that
of saving the Union_! If to do this the destruction of the institution
of slavery was necessary, its being powerless, helpless, and dead cannot
be laid to his charge: it fell a victim to the acts of men who attempted
to place it above the Constitution, and in the doing of which they have
_crushed it and themselves out of the Union_. Thank God for this, the
only good they have done!”[42]
Mr. Lincoln’s Cabinet was composed of men who set themselves to work in
earnest. What they have done is now our country’s glory, our nation’s
triumph.
Mr. Blair, in his first report, speaking of the commencement of his term
of office, says,—
“Soon after the commencement of my term of office, the country felt the
shock of internecine arms. In view of the great crime attempted against
the existence of the nation, it became the duty of this, in common with
the other departments of the government, to put forth all its energies
to prevent the consummation of that crime. By the existing laws, all
postmasters and mail-carriers, and all other persons engaged in handling
the mails of the United States, or in clerical service, were required to
take the usual oath of allegiance to this government, as well as for the
faithful performance of their duties. Whenever it was made apparent by
their declarations or by their conduct that there was a practical
repudiation of the obligation of this oath, whether the party was a
postmaster or a postal contractor, I ordered a removal from office in
the one case and the deprivation of contract in the other. Not only was
it unsafe to intrust the transportation of the mails to a person who
refused or failed to recognize the sanctions of an oath, but to continue
payment of public money to the enemies of the government and their
allies was to give direct aid and comfort to treason in arms. I could
not thus permit this branch of government to contribute to its own
overthrow. No other course could have reasonably been expected by such
contractors. The _bonâ fide_ observance of that oath, and the duty of
allegiance itself, entered into and became a condition, a part of the
consideration, of the contract itself. This failing, the department was
equitably and legally discharged from its literal obligations.
Protection on the part of the government and allegiance on the part of
the citizen are correlative, and are conditions mutually dependent in
every contract; and the highest public interest demanded the rigid
enforcement of this rule of action. Occasional local and transient
inconvenience resulted of necessity, but far less than would reasonably
have been expected. Loyal men everywhere sustained this action, and
speedily furnished the requisite means for continuing the service
without increased expense. These changes were mainly called for in parts
of Virginia and Maryland and in Kentucky and Missouri.
“In the same and in neighboring districts the duties of the
appointment-office have been very onerous, from the great number of
changes required in post-offices, according to changing phases of public
sentiment, individual action, and military occupancy. It is believed
that these positions, with rare exceptions, are now held by men of
unquestioned loyalty. Where such men could not be found, the offices
have been discontinued rather than they should be held by repudiators of
public faith and used for purposes hostile to the perpetuity of our
national institutions.”
On the 23d of September, 1864, Montgomery Blair tendered his resignation
of the office of postmaster-general, and the resignation was accepted by
the President.
The causes which led to this action on the part of Judge Blair were of a
political character, and of such a nature as to clash with the opinions
of men who could have no feelings of sympathy with rebels in arms. Among
the charges brought against Blair were those of opposition to the
general acts of the administration. In answer to one of these, made by
the editor of the “National Republican,” the judge wrote as follows:—
“WASHINGTON, September 26, 1864.
“EDITOR OF THE NATIONAL REPUBLICAN.—DEAR SIR:—The statement contained in
your paper and other journals that my resignation was caused by the
resolution of the Baltimore Convention referring to the Cabinet, has, I
observe, led to the inference that the principles adopted by that body
were objectionable to me. This is not true. On the contrary, my offers
were made in good faith, with a view to allay animosities among the
friends of those principles, and in order to secure their triumph.
“Yours, respectfully,
M. BLAIR.”
The editor of the “United States Mail,” a most valuable post-office
assistant, published in New York, noticing Judge Blair’s resignation and
letter, says,—
“That the official course of Judge Blair as postmaster-general has
furnished no cause of dissatisfaction, and had no connection with his
resignation, is a fact vouched for by the President, who, in his letter
of the 23d, says,—
“‘While it is true that the war does not so greatly add to the
difficulties of your department as to those of some others, it is yet
much to say, as I most truly can, that in the three years and a half
during which you have administered the general post-office I remember no
single complaint against you in connection therewith.’
“Judge Blair’s administration of the post-office department has given
evidence of a sincere desire to promote the efficiency of the service,
and has been marked by the introduction of many important improvements
and reforms,—among them the establishment of the money-order system and
the new travelling post-office, the simplification of post-office
accounts by the substitution of salaries in lieu of commissions as
compensation to postmasters, the free delivery of letters by carriers,
with various other plans calculated to increase the postal accommodation
of the public and further the interests of the service. He has been a
faithful and efficient head of the department, and, as such, leaves a
record of which he has no cause to be ashamed.”[43]
There is no question whatever that Postmaster-General Blair studied the
interest of the department with an eye to its future destiny. He
nourished it, watched it, and we may well say the postal tree is now
known and appreciated by its fruit. In 1863 the “Boston Weekly Gazette”
thus speaks of him:—
“At a time when war and finance are the all-absorbing themes, nationally
speaking, but little attention is paid to the most quiet of our
government departments, but none the less important,—the post-office. Of
the management of this department too much cannot be said in its
praise. When every thing is confused with crowded railroads and the
interruption of conveyance threatened by the exigencies of other public
service, every thing proceeds in the post-office department with almost
the regularity of clock-work. Scarcely a mail fails in its destination,
any more than if peace prevailed in the land and men had nothing to do
but to think of duty connected with transportation exclusively. We think
Postmaster-General Blair entitled to the warmest praise for this state
of things, that certainly redounds greatly to his credit. No man has
ever filled his position who has received more unanimity of approval;
and not a complaint is heard of his management. We make these remarks
simply because it has surprised us that our own papers to the farthest
points reach with such regularity and promptness, and letters from all
parts of the country come to us strictly on time.”
The history of Judge Blair since his resignation is identified with that
of our politics, in which he seems to take _a peaceful interest_.
WILLIAM DENNISON.—On the resignation of the Hon. Montgomery Blair, the
President appointed this gentleman postmaster-general. This appointment,
of course, was made to reconcile political interest and extend to Ohio
the right hand of government friendship, and not from any great
knowledge Mr. Dennison was supposed to have of postal matters. In this
country prominent positions under government are the result of the
recipient’s _status_ in political circles. It is, therefore, evident
that a knowledge of its duties is not an important requisite
qualification for the office.
William Dennison was born in the city of Cincinnati, on the 9th day of
November, 1815. His father was well known through more than half a
century as a popular and prosperous innkeeper in the young and rapidly
growing city, no citizen in the whole community being more respected for
probity and general worth among the pioneer settlers of Ohio and their
descendants. He took great pride in his promising son, young William,
and largely devoted his pecuniary means to secure the boy a thorough and
solid classical education. In preparation for his college course he had
the benefit of the best schools and teachers in his native city, and in
the year 1831 he entered freshman in the Miami University at Oxford,
Ohio, then and now a flourishing and highly-respected institution, which
has educated many of the most prominent and powerful minds of the great
and populous region north of the Ohio River, among whom are Caleb B.
Smith, late Secretary of the Interior and formerly United States judge
in Indiana, now deceased, Major-General Robert C. Schenck, Samuel
Galloway, William S. Groesbeck, George E. Pugh, and others of equal
note.
In September, 1835, near the close of his twentieth year, he graduated
with high honor to himself and the university, then under the long
successful presidency of the Rev. R. H. Bishop, D.D., a learned and
venerated Presbyterian clergyman, who had early been induced to migrate
from Scotland to the Northern United States by the solicitation and in
the company of a renowned divine, John Mason, of the Scotch Presbyterian
Church in New York, who at that time brought over a very useful and
famous little clerical colony to this country.
Young Dennison then immediately returned to Cincinnati, and there
commenced the study of law in the office of Hon. Nathaniel G. Pendleton
(father of the Democratic candidate for the Vice-Presidency) and Stephen
Fales, one of the most eminent lawyers of the West, in his youth a
classmate of Daniel Webster at Dartmouth College and always his
intimate personal friend. Completing his legal studies and admitted to
the bar, he began the practice of his profession in his native city.
Soon afterwards he married the beautiful and highly-educated daughter of
William Neil, of Columbus (the State capital), a famous and extensive
mail-contractor throughout the Northwest, whose name was very familiar
to travellers and newspaper-readers twenty or thirty years ago, in the
days of stage-coaches, when railroad enterprise was in its infancy at
the West.
In 1840 he formed a law-partnership with the once famous, but now
infamous, Albert Pike, poet, jurist, and rebel general, Indian savage by
adoption and taste, leader of scalping-parties, &c. In the execution of
that arrangement he removed to Little Rock, the capital of Arkansas. But
the conditions—moral, intellectual, social, and political—by which he
found himself there surrounded induced him, after a brief residence and
experience, to terminate the connection and return to Cincinnati, where
he resumed his professional business. In 1842, at the earnest
solicitation of his father-in-law, he removed to Columbus, which became
thenceforth his home. He was made solicitor of the Clinton Bank, of that
city, then president of the Bank of Columbus; and he finally accepted
the entire management and control of all the vast mail-contract and
post-road business of Mr. Neil throughout the region between the Ohio
and the great lakes.
In politics Mr. Dennison was an original Whig. Throughout the existence
of that party organization he was a firm, consistent, and
zealously-active member of it. In 1847 he was elected to a two-years
term in the Ohio Senate. He next served as president of the Columbus &
Xenia Railroad until 1859, when, having been chosen by the Republican
party Governor of the State, he resigned his position in connection
with corporations. The great rebellion found him commander-in-chief of
Ohio. He immediately organized and placed at the disposal of the Federal
Government seventy thousand troops, and in offering them gave to George
B. McClellan and William S. Rosecrans their first commissions as general
officers.
Governor Dennison is a working business-man. He is an impressive orator,
tall in person, of courtly but winning manners. He is a good specimen of
a Christian gentleman, a devoted member of the Protestant Episcopal
Church.
Mr. Dennison, immediately upon entering the precincts of the postal
bureau, commenced the study of the peculiar as well as intricate
business of the department. His active mind, tact, and general knowledge
soon mastered many of its intricacies, and, with a precision which
surprised the more knowing ones of the office, arranged and alphabeted
its business in such a manner as to facilitate operations and lessen
actual labor. By this time Governor Dennison is, no doubt, quite
familiar with the business of a post-office.