he
was holding me at arm's length. My colleague, Senator Mason, who
was an old friend of his, had secured a number of appointments,
and the President himself was constantly asking me to yield to the
appointment of this or that "original McKinley man," mostly either
my enemies or men of whom I knew nothing. I was much out of humor
about it, and several consular appointments having been made about
that time, I wrote some one in the State a letter setting forth
that those appointments were but the carrying out of promises made
in advance of McKinley's nomination. This letter, or a copy of
it, was sent to the President. I called at the White House one
day concerning the appointment of some man, whose name I do not
remember, but whom I regarded as my personal enemy. I told him I
had no objection, but that I regarded the man as a jackass. McKinley
evidently did not like my remark very well; he reached back on his
table, pulled out this letter, or a copy of it, and asked me if I
had written it. I replied that I did not know whether I had or
not, but that it sounded very much as I felt at the moment. He
said that he had not expected an expression of that sort from me.
Whereupon we had a general overhauling, in the course of which I
told him with considerable feeling that I had been more or less
intimate with every President since, and including, Mr. Lincoln,
and had always been treated frankly and not held at arm's length;
but with himself that I had been constantly made to feel that he
was reserved with me. We quarrelled about it a little, and finally
he asked me what I wanted done. I told him. He promptly promised
to do it, and did.

That quarrel cleared the atmosphere, and we remained devoted friends
from that day until his death.

Had it not been for the Hon. Marcus A. Hanna, Mr. McKinley would
probably never have been nominated or elected President of the
United States.

I knew Mr. Hanna very many years before he became identified with
the late President McKinley. He always took an interest in Republican
politics, particularly in Ohio politics; and when Mr. Blaine was
a candidate for the Presidency, and I was campaigning in Ohio, I
rode with Mr. Hanna from Canton to Massillon, some seven or eight
miles distant, where a great meeting was held, with Mr. Blaine as
the central figure. I was even then very much impressed with Mr.
Hanna as a man of the very soundest judgment and common sense.

But it was not