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Report of Congressional Printing Investigation Commission Created by the Act Approved March 3, 1905, Making Appropriations to Supply Deficiencies, ... Departments; Replies of Departments; Su
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This work has been selected by scholars as being cultur...)
This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work.
This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.
As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
The Autobiography of Thomas Collier Platt: With Twenty Portraits in Sepia Photogravure,
(This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. T...)
This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book.
**REPRINT** Platt, Thomas Collier, 1833-1910. The autobiography of Thomas Collier Platt with twenty portraits in sepia photogravure compiled and edited by Louis J. Lang ; with addenda. New York. B.W. Dodge & Company, 1910.**REPRINT**
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This work has been selected by scholars as being cultur...)
This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work.
This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.
As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
The autobiography of Thomas Collier Platt; with twenty portraits in sepia photogravure
(This historic book may have numerous typos and missing te...)
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1910 Excerpt: ...Republicans, of character and wealth, who spent a great deal of their time in criticizing us whose interest in the party was such that we gave our days and nights, in season and out of season, to build up the party and make it effective on election day. They undertook to abolish leadership. They might as well have tried to abolish daylight. I urged that it was not so much a new scheme of organization that the party needed, as new blood, earnest, resolute, active, ambitious young men. I therefore did not think Colonel Bliss's plan calculated to infuse new life in the party. Nor did I regard the would-be leaders about him, among them Cornelius N. Bliss and General Samuel Thomas, likely to attract gallant, ambitious young men. I maintained that we would be unable to obtain the secret of how to get votes from gentlemen who gave so little time in active work for the party, and suggested that as the Milholland men were young, active, enthusiastic workers in cosmopolitan districts we had been unable to reach, they, instead of being opposed by Colonel Bliss and his friends, ought to receive their active support and financial encouragement. THAT "HARMONY" DINNER Though both Bliss and Milholland repeatedly claimed me as sponsor for their respective organizations, I never got behind either. Possibly I would have been tempted to prefer the Milholland movement, but for an incident that happened in the winter of 1893. State Chairman Hackett and myself were invited to what we presumed was to be a "harmony" dinner, at the home of Whitelaw Reid. We soon discovered that everybody there was expected to sign a cast-iron pledge to push the Milholland organization. When I protested that my hands were off, and that the State organization would recognize neithe...
The Autobiography of Thomas Collier Platt: With Twenty Portraits in Sepia Compiled (Classic Reprint)
(Excerpt from The Autobiography of Thomas Collier Platt: W...)
Excerpt from The Autobiography of Thomas Collier Platt: With Twenty Portraits in Sepia Compiled
As a member of the rank and file, and then as chief of the Republican organization, I have aided in giving to New York State ten of the eighteen governors elected since the Republican party wore swaddling clothes. I was a worker in the infant State organization when Edwin D. Morgan, who distinguished himself as the Civil War governor, was chosen the first Republican chief magistrate; when Reuben E. Fenton supplanted Horatio Sey mour, and was at the front when John A. Dix.
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The Autobiography of Thomas Collier Platt: With Twenty Portraits in Sepia Photogravure
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He was born on July 15, 1833 in Owego, New York, United States, his father being William Platt, a lawyer, and his mother Lesbia Hinchman, of a Long Island family represented in the colonial and Revolutionary wars. He himself stated, that he was descended from Richard Platt, an English emigrant of 1638, but his connection with the latter's Connecticut descendants cannot be traced. An ancestor of his, Benoin Platt, was living in Westchester County, New York, in 1730. He was reared in a Presbyterian atmosphere and designed by his father for the ministry.
Education
He attended Owego Academy and Yale College, leaving the latter because of bad health before his class (1853) was graduated.
Career
Entering business in Owego as a druggist, he shortly bought a store. In 1859 he was elected county clerk on the Republican ticket, but soon returned to business as president of the Tioga County National Bank and speculator in Michigan timber lands, as well as druggist.
During the sixties he served as chairman of the Tioga County committee and attended Republican state conventions, but his political career really began when in 1870 he became the close friend and lieutenant of Roscoe Conkling. He helped organize the "southern tier" counties for Conkling against Horace Greeley and Senator Reuben E. Fenton, and in the convention of 1871 aided in the dramatic overthrow of the Fenton faction. Thereafter he was consulted by Conkling "on practically every phase" of New York politics.
When in 1873 President Grant offered Conkling the chief justiceship, the latter promised Platt the leadership of the state machine if he accepted. In 1874 Platt was elected to the federal House of Representatives for the first of two consecutive terms. He made little impression there. He was seldom in the public view, but in 1877 emerged in the state convention as chairman and as a vitriolic assailant of Hayes, Evarts, George W. Curtis, and "Half-Breed" reformers generally.
Meanwhile he remained in business; in 1879 he became secretary and a director of the United States Express Company, and in 1880 was made president, then removing to New York City. In 1880, Platt was one of the 306 delegates who supported Grant at the Republican National Convention through thirty-five ballots.
Returning to New York deeply distrustful of the presidential nominee, Garfield, he was prominent at the latter's meeting with various "Stalwart" leaders in the Fifth Avenue Hotel, presented an ultimatum that they would do no work unless promised recognition and rewards, and received satisfactory assurances. As executive chairman of the state committee he did much to conciliate Conkling, to rally other "Stalwarts" behind Garfield, and to plan the New York campaign. His reward was election to the Senate in January 1881.
In 1888 he led the New York delegation to the Republican National Convention, received from Stephen B. Elkins what he thought to be a pledge that Benjamin Harrison would appoint him secretary of the treasury if elected, and swung fifty-eight New York delegates to Harrison. When Harrison failed to redeem his alleged promise, Platt was implacably angry. "I had for many years, " he confesses, "been very ambitious to conduct the government's finances". Harrison's offer of the mission to Spain was curtly rejected. Starvation fare in federal patronage increased his discontent. He opposed Harrison's renomination in 1892, was further offended by the nomination of Whitelaw Reid for the vice-presidency, and took such a frigid part in the ensuing campaign that Cleveland easily carried the state. Yet in the years 1889-93 he was by no means without federal offices to dispense.
With the Republican sweep that elected Levi P. Morton governor in 1894, his power became almost irresistible. The cementing agency was patronage, local, state, and federal. Year after year state conventions carried out his preordained program, and were used chiefly to stimulate party enthusiasm. Legislative programs were likewise planned by an autocratic clique under Platt's dictation, whose fiats were enforced by the caucus. His practice was to obtain large secret contributions from "big business, " by promising favors, and to use these funds for the nomination and election of legislators who would obey orders. Disloyalty was ruthlessly punished. Though hated by the Union League Club, Platt was cordially regarded by Wall Street and most large corporations.
In 1896 he urged Levi P. Morton for the presidential nomination on the ground that he was safer on monetary issues than McKinley, but when outmaneuvered before the convention by Hanna he cordially fell in line behind McKinley. In the next few years he, Hanna, and Quay were stanch allies. Platt's sun declined as that of Theodore Roosevelt rose. Originally opposed in 1898 to Roosevelt's nomination for governor, urged on him by Odell, he partially and reluctantly acquiesced after Quigg had received a promise at Montauk Point that Roosevelt would not "make war on Mr. Platt or anybody else if war could be avoided". Roosevelt consulted Platt often, gave full reasons for his actions, and treated him with the utmost tact; but Platt had to admit that "he frequently did just what he pleased". When he suddenly drove a bill to tax street-railway franchises through the legislature,
By 1900 Platt was determined to shelve Roosevelt by nominating him for vice-president. He returned to New York from the Republican National Convention jubilant, and he was pleased when his lieutenant Odell was elected governor. Actually two heavy blows had been struck at his control. Roosevelt was soon president, while Governor Odell showed such courage and progressiveness that a widening gulf opened between him and Platt. Within two years power rested rather with Odell than with the aging Senator, and when the state convention of 1902 rejected Platt's candidate for lieutenant-governor and took Odell's, Platt passed into the political background. Thereafter he counted for little in New York or Washington.
Till his death he remained president of his express company, but gave it slight attention. His death evoked from the press a nation-wide denunciation of the machine politics which he had long personified.
Achievements
Thomas Collier Platt was a three-term U. S. Senator, was best known as the "political boss" of the Republican Party in New York State in the late 19th century. In state politics he became an indispensable behind-the-scenes worker for the "Stalwart" and administration organization. Platt played a key role in the creation of the City of Greater New York, which incorporated together the boroughs of New York (Manhattan), Kings (Brooklyn), Queens, Richmond (Staten Island) and Bronx counties.
Platt was a Respublican, he reluctantly supported Theodore Roosevelt's candidacy for Governor of New York in 1898.
In the Senate he had almost never spoken, never offered an important bill, never voted except with the party regulars, and never expressed an opinion on national issues which carried any weight.
Personality
Platt was tall, thin, and cadaverous-looking. His principal traits, industry, tenacity, and patience, were all expended upon politics, which were his passion.
He displayed tact, quickness of decision, a businesslike instinct for detail, and complete fidelity to his own group, combined with entire lack of principle in fighting others. He was kindly and tactful; he was above the grosser forms of corruption, though he saw to it that immediate members of his family profited from politics; but his personal morals were reputed to be bad.
Quotes from others about the person
His career may be summed up in Roosevelt's statement that he "had the same inborn capacity for the kind of politics which he liked that many big Wall Street men have shown for not wholly dissimilar types of finance".
Connections
On December 12, 1852, he married Ellen Lucy Barstow, who bore him three sons and was an efficient helpmeet and custodian of his political secrets till her death in 1901. A second marriage, to Mrs. Lillian Thompson Janeway, on October 11, 1903, had proved unhappy and resulted in a separation in 1906.
