E-text prepared by an anonymous volunteer Transcriber's notes: The diaeresis is transcribed by a following hyphen. The contraction "n't" appears both as a separate word and as a suffix in the text. Since this seems to be the choice of the Linotype operator, not the author, it has been changed to modern usage. Differing spellings of "Lafayette" and "judgment" have been standardized. The author's spelling of "Pittsburg", "Alleghanies", "Tombs", "McDougall", and "Breckenridge" has been retained. Hyphenations at the end of lines have been eliminated wherever possible. Those remaining are words that are hyphenated elsewhere in the text, or in general usage. A few corrections of punctuation and of single letters have been made. This transcription was typed into MS-DOS Editor under Windows XP, spell-checked in Word Perfect, and examined with Gutcheck. SOMETHING OF MEN I HAVE KNOWN With Some Papers of a General Nature, Political, Historical, and Retrospective by ADLAI E. STEVENSON Fully Illustrated Second Edition [Frontispiece] [Publisher's logo] Chicago A. C. McClurg & Co. 1909 Copyright A. C. McClurg & Co. 1909 Published October, 1909 Second Edition, December 17, 1909 The Lakeside Press R. R. Donnelley & Sons Company Chicago TO MY WIFE Letitia Green Stevenson THE PATIENT LISTENER TO THESE "TWICE-TOLD TALES" FOREWORD To write in the spirit of candor of men he has known, and of great events in which he has himself borne no inconspicuous part, has been thought not an unworthy task for the closing years of more than one of the most eminent of our public men. It may be that the labor thus imposed has oftentimes enabled the once active participant in great affairs submissively "to entertain the lag end of his life with quiet hours." Following the example of such at a great distance and along a humbler path, I have attempted to write something of events of which I have been a witness, and of some of the principal actors therein during the last third of a century. My book in the main is something of men I have personally known; the occasional mention of statesmen of the past seems justified by matters at the time under discussion. With the hope that it may not be wholly without interest to some into whose hands it may fall, I now submit this slight contribution to the political literature of these passing days. A. E. S. BLOOMINGTON, ILLINOIS, _August 1, 1909._ CONTENTS