Williamsburgh Word Portraits, No. 4

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WILLIAMSBURGH WORD PORTRAITS.

By Appelles—No. 4.

I commence my fourth series by

PORTRAIT No. 10.

I approach the next picture in my gallery of portraits with no little anxiety. I am to depict a man whom every body knows, whom many greatly admire, and whom many more envy and dislike. How shall I represent him? Shall I picture him as a self made man, raising himself from the very foot of the social ladder—from a position of ill-paid manual toil, to one of wealth, distinction, and prominence? Or shall I picture him as the model executive officer, untrammeled by party or personal feeling, punishing offences with unfaltering vigor, and exposing abuses with fearless fidelity? Or shall I paint him as a man of business, comparatively uneducated, yet invariably successful in all that he undertakes, and managing with consummate skill the operations of a business of the most extensive character? Or, taking the other view of the picture, shall I say that he holds vast quantities of land which he fails to improve, and receives large dividends from every monopoly which grinds down the citizens with iron hand? Shall I say, with his friends, that he is devoid of pride, accessible to all, ever willing to do a good turn for an honest man? Or shall I say, with his enemies, that while he makes copious professions of his solicitude for the public weal, he really cares only for his own aggrandisement? Such, and so varied, are the opinions which men entertain and frequently express in conversation about him. For my own part, I am not blind to the fact that my subject is a better friend to himself than to anybody else, and that he minds No. 1 more carefully than any other of the numerals. Nor can I fail to see that there is an abundant proportion of vanity, and consequent dogmatism, in his composition—but not more than in that of many other men who have far less to be proud of than he. Like his whilom rival whose picture I have sketched before, he is somebody, and he knows it, and his conversation and manner let other people know it also. It is unpleasant to be forever reminded in this way that another man is richer than you, and from this, no doubt, a good deal of envy and enmity has been excited by my subject, which not all his free and jovial intercourse with his fellows can remove from their minds. But on the other hand, when a man has risen from nothing to something, when he has made himself confessedly one of, if not the very, most prominent of our citizens, and has done it all by his own hard work, without adventitious aid of birth or fortune, or even education; and when the money which he has so abundantly gathered is as freely spent, so that the habit of acquisition has never been suffered in his case as in many others, to interfere with the power of spending money wisely or of enjoying it well—then I think that such a man is entitled to a very high degree of respect, and to have such faults as may grow out of a too visible self appreciation lightly dealt with and delicately overlooked.

PORTRAIT No. 11

A certain antagonism between the men leads my ideas from the above to my present subject. A tall, powerful, muscular, ruddy featured man, whom Nature meant for a great man mentally as well as physically, having given him powers of mind corresponding to his Philistine frame, but which his love of ease disinclines him to exercise, except occasionally in the field of politics. Here, when he has an object to gain, he is in his element and in his glory. The shrewdest of wire workers cannot circumvent him. Though a strict party man he never fails to be elected when he runs, even in a district where his party are largely outnumbered; for if necessary, he could always command support from his opponents’ ranks. So in the counsels of the State, he always contrived to secure the friendly feelings of his opponents as well as the confidence of his own party. At home, doing precious little for the success of anybody but himself, he always contrives to have troops of friends who will do anything for him. Latterly he seems to have retired from political struggles to the New York haven for distressed politicians. Not that he is in distress—he is only biding his time, and has secured a comfortable berth meanwhile.—Socially, my subject is one of the most pleasant companions that can be found, and to this fact much of his popularity and success are due. Those who are only casually acquainted with him might suppose him to be merely a careless bon vivant, owing all his political success to luck rather than to shrewd management, and too enamored of good living to care for anything else. But those who have seen him at the Capitol towards the close of a session, rigidly denying himself all the creature comforts which no one can relish better than himself, in order to keep his scheming brain clear for his political maneuvring​ , (in which he seldom failed to carry a point, even with an adverse majority against his party) give him credit for qualities of mind which, if more steadily exercised and constantly applied, would have enabled him to achieve great things. As it is, we have not seen the last of him. His popularity in the State is such, that if ever his party regain their lost ascendancy, we should not be surprised to see them place him in one​ of the leading state offices.

PORTRAIT No. 12.

I will conclude my sketches for to-day with a faint glimpse at the character of one who is not now a resident of the Eastern District, but who lived here long enough to be known and heard of by every one, before moving to the Western District. He was not long ago, and may be again for aught I know, what Fernando Wood¹ was in New York about the same time, vis, the best abused man in the city. They say even the De'il is not so black as St. Dunstan and other holy men painted him, and I must confess, for my part, that I know in this city very many men, and officials at that, who are very much worse than this man would be, even if all that ever was imputed to him had been true. The greatest sin, I think, which my subject committed in the estimation of his many detractors, is that of being shrewd and able, as well as ultra, in the advocacy of unpopular views. He might have been all this, however, and have escaped a great deal of abuse, if he did not occupy a position which calls for precisely the very temperament and qualities it is his fortune not to possess. Henry Ward Beecher² is tremendously popular in the city of ours. This man whom I am sketching is a very fair fac simile of Beecher in temperament and mental calibre, no less than in creed and sentiment. Yet the very course which gives B. popularity, ties a tin kettle to the tail of C.³ Such is the consistency of the vox populi I do not reverence B., nor despise C., albeit I think with their peculiar qualities of mind, ultra views, and rabid fanaticism, in season and out of season, that the one man is as far out of place on the bench as the other is in the pulpit, and no more. With regard to the personal imputations which have been made on my subject, I attach very little importance to them. They are part of the ordeal which every man must expect to pass through, who adopts fanatic views, and ruthlessly assails, at all times and in all places, those who will not swallow them. Men will not take the trouble to answer such a man’s arguments, but undertake the easier task of blackening his character. Nor do I think that the allegations so frequently made against his official course are well sustained. Law has become a mere lottery, and his decisions are not oftener upset by the Court above, than those of the latter one, relatively, are by the Court above that. He certainly has not what Mrs. Micawber claimed for her spouse, “the judicial mind,” for no man of strong passions, inveterate prejudices and ultra views ought to reach the bench; but under the elective system few of another kind can reach it, and for my part, I would as lieve confide in the impartiality of an honest enthusiast, as in that of an obsequious, time serving partisan. And these two are the only classes that are likely to reach the bench through the ballot box. The men of judicial minds do not commend themselves to popular constituencies. When tired of practice, their only resource is to turn literateurs, or to occupy themselves in laughing at the absurd blunders of the unfit men whom nominating conventions place where they ought to be.

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