#joseph benson foraker

[generalharrison]

For God's sake, Benjamin, do not get a fishing reputation at the start;...take a fool's advice and watch Public Opinion, and let Grover Cleveland go fishing.

Leroy Walker to Benjamin Harrison, August 17th, 1888. 

Walker, a resident of the National Military Home in Leavenworth, Kansas, warned the candidate not to associate himself with fishing. President Cleveland had upset numerous G.A.R. veterans when he was caught fishing on Decoration Day (now called Memorial Day). Harrison went ahead and fished anyway, and read Tolstoy in the evenings before work.

Candidate Harrison was taking a break from the campaign up on Middle Bass Island in Lake Erie at the invitation of Ohio Governor J. B. Foraker and former Governor Charles Foster. While in the Buckeye State, the candidate gave a few speeches, but focused on writing his official letter of acceptance of the Republican nomination.

[badasscivilwarbeards]

The Mustaches That Bind

Politician Joseph Benson Foraker made an enemy of President Theodore Roosevelt after a fight at a dinner, but COME ON GUYS! LOOK at what you have in COMMON!

MUSTACHES!

[generalharrison]

Gov. Joseph B. Foraker Corresponds with President-elect Harrison

Joseph Benson Foraker (1846-1917), Governor of Ohio (1886-1890)

Notes of a Busy Life (1916)

Pages 426-428

I had numerous letters from him after he was elected, all of the same general character as the following:

Benjamin Harrison. 674 Delaware Street.

Hon. J. B. Foraker, Indianapolis, Ind., Nov. 22, 1888.

Columbus, Ohio. My Dear Governor: — You will know without elaborate explanations from me why I have been so slow in acknowledging your telegram of congratulations, and I am sure you will not impute it to any lack of interest or appreciation either of the friendly words in which you express your satisfaction in my election or of the good work which you gave to our Indiana campaign. I shall be glad to see you at any time, or have from you, in the frankest and most confidential way, any suggestions which you may desire to make.

With kindest regards to Mrs. Foraker.

Very truly yours,

Benj. Harrison.

I answered the foregoing letter as follows:

Nov. 24, 1888.

Dear General: — . . . Responding to your kind invitation to frankly make any suggestion I may wish to make, allow me to insist that you give yourself no concern about "golden bridges" for Southern Democrats to retreat over.

We can well afford to let them take the chances of swimming the creek. Every true-hearted Republican, and to such you owe your election, and upon meeting the expectations of such you must depend for the success and popularity of your administration, feels that we will fail in our duty if we hesitate to throw about the elective franchise every safeguard that legislation can appropriately supply.

Of course, we should be kind, as we have been, but we must be firm. Beware of men who have "fits." They always have them at the wrong time.

Use your own good sense, and have in all things the courage of your honest convictions.

Hastily, but truly, and with regards to your family.

J. B. Foraker.

Hon. Benj. Harrison.

The allusion to "golden bridges" has reference to some editorials the "saintly" Richard Smith was publishing at the time in which he advised President Harrison to build a "golden bridge," something like Hayes had done, on which Southern Democrats could retreat into the Republican Party.

That my advice was well received is indicated by the fact that he did not waste any time on such sentimental suggestions. We continued our correspondence in much the same way from time to time all the while he was in the White House. I quote only one more letter, and I quote that, not so much to show our relations, as to show how the President felt about his work after he had fairly entered upon it; his experience in that respect being interesting because, no doubt, like that of all other Presidents:

Executive Mansion. Washington, D. C.

March 27, 1889. Dear Governor: — I am much obliged for your kind letter. It is very pleasant to have your commendation of the little work I have been able to do up to this time.

It is a growing wonder to me that a President is able to do anything well in the rush and confusion that surges around him. People complain of the slowness that attends appointments, and yet they do not give me an unemployed hour.

With kind remembrances to Mrs. Foraker.

Sincerely yours, Hon. J. B. Foraker. 

Benjamin Harrison.

[generalharrison]

Gov. Joseph B. Foraker on the Republican Failure in 1892, and His Own Failure to Win a Senate Seat

Joseph Benson Foraker (1846-1917), Governor of Ohio (1886-1890)

Notes of a Busy Life (1916)

Pages 425-426

...The "hurrah boys" had lost interest and the result was a Democratic victory. The lesson of all this is plain. You cannot do much in politics without issues and a candidate who is not afraid to discuss them, and they must be issues that are important enough to call for plain talk that the whole people will note and understand. Failing in this, the "hurrah boys" become indifferent and the "sober and conservative" classes too frequently forget all about the election until they read its results the day afterward.

In discharging the duties of his office Harrison was an excellent President, but, as Mr. Hayes says [in his recently published diary], he lacked tact. He had a grouchy way of meeting people and lost friends and made enemies. Consequently on election day there was "lack of interest." Defeat was his reward and his party's disaster.

Some of us foresaw all this at Minneapolis and in a conscientious endeavor to serve the best interests of the party, and not as a lot of "unscrupulous bosses," tried to nominate somebody else. It was not an agreeable thing to do, but duty commanded, and we did the best we could.

In the Senatorial contest with Senator Sherman a few months before a great many revenue agents, national bank examiners, and others holding positions under the Federal government flocked into Columbus and made themselves active in opposition to my candidacy.

Governor Foster was then Secretary of the Treasury. Senator Sherman had helped to secure him this appointment as a token of his appreciation for Governor Foster's support in the National Convention of 1888. The Governor had a natural aptitude and a great liking for practical politics. He had an opportunity in this contest to show his appreciation for what Senator Sherman had done for him, and, therefore, made it known early that, while he had no personal antagonism to me, yet he favored Sherman's re-election.

I felt some resentment, and in the course of a speech I was called on to make at the time I referred to these government officials who were so intermeddling, as "everybody from grandfather's hat to Baby McKee." This was construed by some to indicate a hostile feeling toward President Harrison; but it was not so, and if it had been it would not change the fact that neither personal nor political dislike had anything to do with my opposition to his renomination at Minneapolis. On the contrary, my relations with General Harrison were cordial, not only before, and while he was President, but afterward until his death.