HENDRICKS, SHERMAN, BANCROFT- 1884-1891 225 



and were received in a way which surprised me. Mr. 

 Harrison seemed, to say the least, not in good humor. He 

 stood leaning on the corner of his desk, and he asked none 

 of us to sit. All of us had voted for him, and had come 

 to him in his own interest as well as in the interest of the 

 country; but he seemed to like us none the better for all 

 that. The first speech was made by Mr. Eogers. Dwell 

 ing on the disappointment of thoughtful Republicans 

 throughout the country at the delay in redeeming pledges 

 made by the Republican National Convention as to the 

 extension of the civil service, and reiterated in the Presi 

 dent s own speeches in the United States Senate, he in a 

 playful way referred to the conduct of certain officials in 

 Buffalo, when the President interrupted him, as it seemed 

 to me at the time very brusquely and even rudely, 

 saying: &quot;Mr. Rogers, you have no right to impute evil 

 motives to any man. The motives of these gentlemen to 

 whom you refer are presumably as good as your own. An 

 argument based upon such imputations cannot advance the 

 cause you support in the slightest degree. &quot; Mr. Rogers 

 was somewhat disconcerted for a moment, but, having 

 resumed his speech, he presented, in a very dignified and 

 convincing way, the remainder of his argument. He was 

 followed by the other members from various States, giv 

 ing different sides of the case, each showing the impor 

 tance which Republicans in his own part of the country 

 attributed to an extension of the civil-service rules. 



My own turn came last. I said : Mr. President : I will 

 make no speech, but will simply state two facts. 



&quot;First: Down to a comparatively recent period every 

 high school, college, and university in the Northern States 

 has been a center of Republican ideas : no one will gainsay 

 this for a moment. But recently there has come a change. 

 During nearly twenty years it has been my duty to nomi 

 nate to the trustees of Cornell University candidates for 

 various positions in its faculty; the fundamental charter 

 of the institution absolutely forbids any consideration, in 

 such cases, of the party or sect to which any candidate 



I. 15 



