MR. CHANDLER'S RESIDENCE IN WASHINGTON.
In private life Mr. Chandler kept up the habits which marked his public career. His voluminous correspondence was never neglected. Napoleon's method of leaving letters unopened for three weeks, because within that time most of them would need no replies, he reversed. As a rule, every communication addressed to Mr. Chandler was promptly answered; to even mere notes of compliment brief responses were sent. Of course this practice made a confidential secretary indispensable, and that position was held for some years by a Mr. Miller; after his death (in 1870) it was discreetly and faithfully filled by George W. Partridge. Matters entrusted to Mr. Chandler's care by constituents always received early attention; the same statement is true of applications from the humblest stranger who preferred a claim upon his attention, and it includes political enemies as well as friends. Mr. Chandler regarded meeting these demands as part of his public duties; no other prominent man of his day gave to such matters a tithe of the time and energy devoted to them by him, and this was one source of his hold upon the popular affection. Of course much labor was involved, but this was offset by the fact that in all his duties he was regular, punctual and systematic; his mercantile training helped him greatly in this respect, and it was said of him truly, "He has never been excelled as a 'business Senator' at Washington." While not a student, he was a man who prepared for every important action. In his speeches he aimed at nervous strength and effectiveness. For oratorical finish he cared nothing, but simple language, terse sentences, some plain word whose meaning was an argument in itself—these he sought for unceasingly. He apologized for the length of one of his brief speeches because he had not had time to make it shorter. Not rarely he would put into a sentence of ten Saxon words the power of a philippic, and this rough missile would crush where mere rhetoric would have only irritated. Mr. Chandler never failed as a speaker to command the popular attention, and his force and the simplicity of his diction were greatly aided by the sincerity which illuminated them. The vigor and truth of conviction, which made him so ardent a champion of the party of his political faith, marked his speeches, and made his appeals potent with his hearers. "His words were simple and his soul sincere." In fact, his sincerity and honesty were the salient qualities of the man. His was not a faultless character; but it was above baseness, and it was free from affectation, from cant, and from hypocrisy. The record of his public life recalls Emerson's estimate of Bonaparte: "This man showed us how much may be accomplished by the mere force of such virtues as all men possess in less degree—namely, by punctuality, by personal attention, by courage, and by thoroughness." But more honorable to his memory is the fact that concerning the man himself can be justly quoted Carlyle's eloquent tribute to Burns: "He is an honest man.... In his successes and his failures, in his greatness and his littleness, he is ever clear, simple and true, and glitters with no lustre but his own. We reckon this to be a great virtue—to be, in fact, the root of most other virtues."
MR. CHANDLER'S RESIDENCE IN DETROIT.
Mr. Chandler's social nature was a hearty one. His manners were easy, he was affable with all, and he was without the slightest tinge of aristocratic tastes or prejudice. No false dignity surrounded him; with his friends his laugh was ready; he liked a game of whist, enjoyed a good story, found pleasure in social gatherings, was entertaining in conversation, and easily gave way to the natural jollity of his spirits. Exact and stern as he often was, his intimates found him a most agreeable companion Few men have ever bound friends to themselves more firmly.
He surrounded his homes with the comforts that wealth could supply, and yet was not ostentatious. His Washington residence he purchased for about $40,000 in 1867 from Senor Bareda, the Peruvian Minister. It is located on H between Thirteenth and Fourteenth streets, and is a handsome house with spacious parlors and dining room upon the first floor; commodious apartments occupy the upper stories, which are connected by rich staircases of black walnut. Mr. Chandler's office was located in the basement, and has been the scene of many important consultations between famous men on questions of party policy and public concern. His Detroit home was the mansion on the Northwest corner of Fort and Second streets, which he built in 1855-'56. It is situated in spacious grounds, and is of the plain Roman style of architecture, which aims at the simple in outline and massive in effect. A semi-circular drive and path lead to it through the gate-ways of a heavy and handsome fence and into a large porte cochere. Thence wide stone steps rise through solid mahogany doors to a broad hall, whose floor of inlaid woods is partly hidden by rich rugs. On the right is the drawing room, a spacious apartment furnished in blue and gold, and abounding in tasteful ornaments and handsome paintings. In it stands Randolph Rogers's marble bust of Mr. Chandler, executed about 1870. Opposite and connected by folding doors are the library and dining room. The former's shelves are well filled with the best works of standard authors, including many ancient chronicles seldom found in private book collections. Back of the dining room and across a transverse hallway is the apartment that was Mr. Chandler's private office; its walls are literally covered with shelving containing Congressional annals and reports and many public documents. The appointments of the numerous other rooms are tasteful and complete, and all the surroundings of the house are in keeping with its quiet elegance. In 1858 Mr. Chandler met there with an accident of nearly fatal results. He followed his little daughter upon a search for some escaping gas, and was caught with her in a room in which a large mass of that inflammable vapor was exploded by a lighted candle. To add to the danger of the situation the door was closed upon them by a frightened servant. Mr. Chandler seized his child and sheltered her from serious danger, and groped his way out blinded and scorched. It was then found that his hands and face were badly burned, and the loss of his eyesight was threatened. Careful treatment and his vigorous constitution ultimately brought about a full recovery, and the only traces left of the casualty were some slight affections of the facial muscles and an unusual pallor of countenance.
Mr. Chandler's domestic life was a thoroughly happy one. He married Letitia Grace Douglass of New York, a noble Christian woman, whose social accomplishments blended dignity with grace, and who met to the full her large share of the exacting duties attendant upon public life and high station. Their only child was a daughter, Mary Douglass Chandler, who was married, while her father was a Senator, to the Hon. Eugene Hale of Ellsworth, Maine. She inherited many of her father's traits, and his affection for her was rooted in the inner fibres of his strong nature. Her children, his three little grandsons, often knew him as a rollicking playfellow, and he counseled with her freely and often, and she shared in his confidence as well as his love. Throughout his life he expressed his appreciation of the devoted attachment of his wife and child by many acknowledgments that do not belong to a public chronicle; his will left his great estate to them as his sole heirs, "share and share alike."