umner,
afterwards Yale's great political economist. Soon after graduation
Whitney came to New York and rapidly forged ahead as a lawyer.
Brilliant, polished, suave, he early displayed those qualities which
afterward made him the master mind of presidential Cabinets and the
maker of American Presidents. Physically handsome, loved by most men and
all women, he soon acquired a social standing that amounted almost to a
dictatorship. His early political activities had greatly benefited New
York. He became a member of that group which, under the leadership of
Joseph H. Choate and Samuel J. Tilden, accomplished the downfall of
William M. Tweed. Whitney remained Tilden's political protege for
several years. Though highbred and luxury-loving, as a young man he was
not averse to hard political work, and many old-timers still remember
the days when "Bill" Whitney delivered cart-tail harangues on the lower
east side. By 1884 he had become the most prominent Democrat in New
York--always a foe to Tammany--and as such he contributed largely to
Cleveland's first election, became Secretary of the Navy in Cleveland's
cabinet and that great President's close friend and adviser. As
Secretary of the Navy, Whitney, who found the fleet composed of a few
useless hulks left over from the days of Farragut, created the fighting
force that did such efficient service in the Spanish War. The fact that
the United States is now the third naval power is largely owing to these
early activities of Whitney.

Certainly all this national service forms a strange prelude to Whitney's
activities in the public utilities of New York and other cities. Had he
died, indeed, in his fiftieth year, his name would be renowned today as
a worker for the highest ideals of American citizenship. What suddenly
made him turn his back upon his past, join his former enemies in Tammany
Hall, and engage in these great speculative enterprises? The simplest
explanation is that, with his ability and ambition, Whitney had the
luxurious tastes of a Medici. At the height of his career his financial
success found expression in a magnificent house which he established
on Fifth Avenue. Its furnishings were one of the wonders of New York.
Whitney ransacked the art treasures of Europe, stripped medieval castles
of their carvings and tapestries, ripped whole staircases and ceilings
from the repose of centuries, and relaid them in this abode of splendor,
and here he entertained with a lavishn