"I wish you would throw your great influence, so much increased by the renewed expression of the confidence of your State, against what seems to me the most dangerous single proposition now pending before the people, a plan to elect Senators of the United States by popular vote.
"I am, with high regard, faithfully yours,
"Geo. F. Hoar.
"Hon. S. M. Cullom,
"Chicago, Ills."
Senator Dawes, of Massachusetts, Senator Hoar's colleague, was not the cultivated man that Senator Hoar was, and neither would I say he was a man of strong and independent character. He was very popular in the Senate, probably far more popular with Senators than his colleague, and it was much easier for him to pass bills in which he was interested. He was influential as a legislator and a man of great probity of character.
For some reason or other—why, I never knew—he was one of the very few Eastern Senators of my time who gave special attention to Indian affairs. He was chairman of the Committee on Indian Affairs for years, and was the acknowledged authority on that subject in the Senate. When he retired he was placed at the head of the so-called Dawes Commission, having in charge the interests of the tribes of Indians in Oklahoma and the Indian territory. He was an honest man, and having inherited no fortune, he consequently retired from the Senate a poor man. The appointment was very agreeable to him on that account, but it was given to him more especially because he knew more about Indian matters than any other man.
As I have been writing these recollections of the men with whom I have been associated in public life for the last half-century, I have had occasion to mention a number of times, Senator Orville H. Platt, of Connecticut, who was two years older than I, and who took his seat in the Senate in 1879, serving there until his death in 1905.
We became very friendly almost immediately after I entered the Senate. One bond of friendship between us from the beginning was, we each had a senior colleague a celebrated General of Civil War fame—Hawley, of Connecticut and Logan, of Illinois. Senator Platt and I necessarily were compelled to take what might be termed a back seat, our colleagues being almost always in the lime-light. As a member of the select committee on Interstate Commerce, Senator Platt rendered much valuable assistance in the investigation and in the passage of the Act of 1887, although he was almost induced finally to oppose it on account of the anti-pooling and the long- and-short-haul sections.
He was a modest man, and it was some years before Senators that were not intimate with him really appreciated his worth. Had he not yielded to the late Senator Hoar, he would have been made chairman of the Committee on the Judiciary instead of Senator Hoar, a position for which there was no Senator more thoroughly qualified than Senator Platt. It seems strange that he never did succeed to an important chairmanship until he was made chairman of the Committee on Cuban Relations during the war with Spain, and he really made that an important committee. Not only in name but in fact was he the author of those very wise pieces of legislation known as the Platt Amendments. I was a member of the Committee on Cuban Relations, and know whereof I speak in saying that it was Senator Platt who drafted these so-called amendments and secured their passage in the Senate. They were finally embodied in the Cuban Constitution, and also in the treaty between Cuba and the United States.
After the late Senator Dawes retired, Senator Platt was an authority on all matters pertaining to Indian affairs.
As the years passed by he became more and more influential in the Senate. Every Senator on both sides of the chamber had confidence in him and in his judgment. As an orator he was not to be compared with Senator Spooner, but he did deliver some very able speeches, especially during the debates preceding the Spanish-American War.