https://archive.org/stream/mymemoriesofeigh01depe#page/224/mode/2up
GOOD READING, THANKSֱ
Fascinating! Thanks. His reputation as a US senator was somewhat mixed, but he was colorful:
“A pessimist is a man who thinks all women are bad. An optimist is one who hopes they are.”
More: http://www.mrlincolnandnewyork.org/inside.asp?ID=54&subjectID=3
Boy, I’ll bet the forum users still using dial up are just thrilled waiting for this thread to load.
I can remember when a simple animated gif of an opposed piston engine as my sig brought the “torch and pitchfork brigade” out whining.
Thanks for comments.
https://archive.org/stream/ldpd_5655298_000#page/n0/mode/2up
Just as at Gettysburg with Edward Everett compared to Lincoln, long-windedness does not equal a memorable speech. What a windbag.
Chicago Tribune put Chauncey’s speech on page 2. I think it was probably a very good speech for the older people who remembered Lafayette alive in their youth.
http://archives.chicagotribune.com/1886/10/29
Not many of still alive 100+ years later.
Mr Depew was also involved in the building of a 17 mile long railroad in the central Adirondacks.
The Raquette Lake Railroad was build from Clearwater (now Carter) to Raquette Lake village for one primary purpose - to carry the rich and famous a little closer to their great camps (there was also some logging involved).
Also involved in the building of the RLRR were Collis P. Huntington and W.W. Durant.
http://www.adirondackalmanack.com/2014/03/life-times-raquette-lake-railway.html
Lafayette toured the U.S. in 1824-25.
http://schillerinstitute.org/educ/hist/lafayette.html
The late Senator Robert Kerr of Oklahoma once quoted Chauncey Depew in an attack on a Senator from Indiana, “As I gaze on the ample figure of my friend from Indiana, and as I listen to him,” Kerr began, "I am reminded of Chauncey Depew who said to the equally obese William Howard Taft at a dinner before the latter became President, ‘I hope, if it is a girl, Mr. Taft will name it for his charming wife.’ “To which Taft responded, 'if it is a girl, I shall, of course, name it for my lovely helpmate of many years. And if it is a boy, I shall claim the father’s prerogative and name it Junior. But if, as I suspect, it is only a bag of wind, I shall name it Chauncey Depew.’”
Someplace I’ve read a story about Mr. Depew, J.P. Morgan (or one of the Vanderbilts), and some questions over a certain bond , note, or mortgage. It’s in either A Treasury of Railroad Folklore (Harlow & Bodkin), or The Story of American Railroads (Holbrook). I don’t have access to either of those tonight, but anyone who does is welcome to add that story here instead of waiting for me.
- Paul North.
Paul, I think it is in The Story of American Railroads–not that I remember everything that is in the Folklore book; I simply do not recall it at all. My copies of both books are about two miles from here, and I will NOT ask my daughter to look for them and bring them to me tonight.
I don’t know when Depew and Morgan met. Chauncey was 3 years older than J.P., and joined the board of directors 5 years sooner. In 1885, they were 2/3 of a trio who bought the West Shore.
In 1888, Depew was New York’s ‘favorite son’ candidate for President at the Republican convention. He doubted he could overcome the Granger states’ antipathy to railroads. On the 3rd ballot, he had nearly as many votes as the ultimate nominee, Benjamin Harrison.
https://www.chicagohs.org/history/politics/1888.html
In Chauncey’s day, the twin spires of St. Patrick’s Cathedral were visible from Lexington
The quote or story I’m thinking of was something like this:
Mr. Depew went in to see Vanderbilt or Morgan, and said he had a question about or objection to a note (as in a loan), and that it was not quite right. That note might have been disadvantageous to the railroad (i.e., required payment of lots of money) - perhaps a railroad of which Depew was a director; the net effect was like looting or money laundering, etc.
The great man said something like: “That note was drawn up by Mr. [X = a lawyer for him]. Do you think you know more about it than he does ?”
Quite the put-down.
The railroad involved was one that ran in or around New York City - perhaps the Central or New Haven, maybe the Westchester, etc.
- Paul North.
Depew’s penultimate birthday, April 23, 1926
Sunday Eagle Magazine, Brooklyn, N.Y., November 14, 1926
Will Craze for Young Men Last?
Chauncey M. Depew, perennial worker, gives time-seasoned views
By Harold C. Burr
Are the youngsters more valuable to the business world than their seniors? Are young men forcing the old men out of business?
Who is better qualified to answer these questions than Chauncey M. Depew, who with some ninety-odd years behind him, still looks on each day as a battle to be fought and won?
The railroads’ economic clout has helped them wield considerable political power in the state. At the end of the 19th century, Luebke said, Nebraska’s two U.S. senators were sometimes referred to as its Union Pacific senator and its Burlington senator.
http://www.ble-t.org/pr/news/headline.asp?id=28227
Did New York have a Central senator and an Erie senator?
Thomas C. Platt was New York’s senior senator.
Chicago Tribune, Sept. 22, 1930
Platt, Depew and Cinders Won 1902 Fight
How Roads Staved Off Electrification
By Arthur Sears Henning
In the historical perspective produced by the passage of nearly thirty years, the events leading to the electrification of the steam railroad terminals of New York City stand forth as dramatic episodes in the age-old struggle between the populace and entrenched privilege.
Interesting to compare Cosmo’s politics then with those under Odell since 2014.