US SENATOR CONGRESSMAN NY REPUBLICAN POWER BROKER BOSS PLATT LETTER SIGNED 1890s

Description

Here’s a Circa 1890’s ALS Signed by
THOMAS COLLIER
"
BOSS
"
PLATT
Political Boss of the Republican Party
Photo right: shows Thomas C. Platt standing next to a sign labeled "N.Y. State" and holding "N.Y. City Offices" under his arm, which he is planning to swap with Richard Croker, as the Tammany Tiger, who is standing next to a sign labeled "N.Y. City" and is holding "N.Y. Legislature" in his left hand, to complete the swap (Puck Magazine cover).
(1833 – 1910)
NOTABLE & POWERFUL U.S. REPUBLICAN PARTY SENATOR FROM NEW YORK 1881 and 1897-1909
&
US CONGRESSMAN FROM NY 1873-1877
Thomas Collier Platt was a three-time U.S. Senator, and the undisputed Republican power broker in New York State. With his New York political machine, a nod from him could make or break mayors, governors, and even presidents! He believed in patronage and the spoils system.
Platt was a political boss, but he was no crook. Even his enemies admitted that he was honest. "
Many hundreds of thousands of dollars passed through his hands annually
," said one critic "
and I don't believe that one penny ever sticks to his fingers
."
One of the most powerful of Republican politicians, he was
largely responsible for the election, in 1898, of Theodore Roosevelt as Governor of New York.
Although Roosevelt often consulted with Platt, Roosevelt was largely independent in political matters, and in 1900 Platt succeeded in shelving him (
so he thought
) into the Vice Presidency!
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HERE'S A CIRCA 1890s AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED BY “
T. C. PLATT
,
NY
” ON “UNITED STATES SENATE. ~~ MEMORANDUM” NOTE LETTERHEAD, 1p., TO THE POSTMASTER OF THE UNITED STATES SENATE, DIRECTING HIM TO
“…
Please forward my mail to 49 Broadway, New York Today (Friday) and Tomorrow – Saturday. Then, deliver to Arlington Hotel as usual
…”
The document measures 4” x 5” and is in very good condition, mounted to another piece, and slightly trimmed at the right edge, and a paper chip top center margin.
A FINE ADDITION TO YOUR NEW YORK STATE POLITICAL HISTORY AUTOGRAPH, MANUSCRIPT & EPHEMERA COLLECTION.
<<>>
BIOGRAPHY OF THE HONORABLE
THOMAS COLLIER PLATT
Platt, Thomas Collier
(15 July 1833–06 March 1910), politician, was born in Owego, New York, the son of William Platt, a lawyer, and Lesbia Hinchman. His father, a successful attorney and strict Presbyterian, tried to encourage his son to enter the ministry. Accordingly, the young Platt attended Yale College (1850–1852), where he studied theology at the behest of his father. But Thomas Platt had no interest in the ministry and failed to earn a degree. After leaving Yale in 1852, he entered into a variety of employments. He started out as a druggist, was briefly an editor of a small newspaper, and served as a bank president. In 1852 he married Ellen Lucy Barstow, with whom he had three sons.
Platt entered political life in 1856, when he supported the first Republican presidential candidate,
John C. Frémont
. Frémont’s defeat did not dampen Platt’s appetite for politics, for in 1859 he successfully ran for county clerk of Tioga County and later became chairman of the Tioga County Republican Committee. In 1870 he made the acquaintance of Senator
Roscoe Conkling
, the boss of the New York Republican party; who took an interest in Platt. With Conkling’s assistance, Platt won his party’s nomination for the Twenty-sixth Congressional District. He served two terms in the House and moved on to the Senate alongside Conkling in 1881.
Platt’s first term in the Senate was brief. Both Platt and his mentor Conkling were philosophically opposed to the new president,
James Garfield
, and a clash between the president and the two New York senators erupted shortly after Garfield’s inauguration. Conkling, who had long controlled patronage in the Empire State, had visited Garfield, who assured the senator that he would consult with Conkling on all patronage positions, including the important post of New York customhouse collector. Garfield reneged on his promise and nominated for the post a member of the Half-breed wing of the Republican party. Platt urged that he and Conkling resign from the Senate and seek vindication for their cause by winning reelection in the solidly Stalwart Republican New York state legislature. But Platt badly misjudged the situation, for neither of the two could muster enough votes to be reelected and the whole affair backfired on Platt. Conkling’s career was finished, and Platt, humiliated, earned the nickname “Me too.”
Platt’s humiliation did not last long. After returning to Owego, he spent the next several years of his life carefully building a political machine. Fashioning his organization after Tammany Hall, he took advantage of the crumbling New York State Republican party to erect a powerful political faction in which he became the unquestioned leader. He also developed a cozy relationship with executives of the large corporations, who looked to him to exert his influence over members of the state legislature to ease the weight of burdensome legislation. Platt willingly complied, and in turn the corporations slavishly funded his machine. By the end of the decade he had so shrewdly crafted his power base that he ruled most of upstate New York. His personal style was not autocratic, and he did not alienate others. Rather, Platt ruled gently, which earned him the title of “the Easy Boss.” Unlike most bosses of his day, he did not use his power to enrich himself.
Theodore Roosevelt
wrote of Platt in his memoir, “He handled his private business successfully; but it was politics in which he was absorbed, and he concerned himself therewith everyday of the year” (
Theodore Roosevelt: An Autobiography
[1913], p. 301).
Concerning himself solely with behind the scenes influence, Platt headed the Republican delegation to the 1888 Republican National Convention. Led to believe by a
Benjamin Harrison
supporter that he would be secretary of the treasury in a Harrison administration, Platt agreed to throw a number of crucial delegates to Harrison, helping him lock up the nomination. But Harrison failed to pick Platt for the post, which left him forever bitter toward the president, and four years later Platt failed to support Harrison in his bid for reelection. Meanwhile, Platt continued to fortify his grip on the Republican party in New York. He moved from Owego to a hotel in Manhattan, where he dispensed patronage jobs, handed out campaign contributions, and continued to look out for the business interests of his contributors. He soon became one of the more powerful political bosses of the Gilded Age, and he exerted his influence in almost all aspects of New York State politics. In 1894 the GOP won both control of the state house and the governorship of New York. Two years later the Republicans increased their margins, and Platt used his control of the party to nominate himself for U.S. senator. While in the Senate Platt took little interest in either national or international affairs. He never initiated any significant legislation, rarely spoke on the floor, and commanded little respect amongst his peers. State politics consumed him. Returning to his New York hotel every weekend, the senator conducted what came to be called “Platt’s Sunday school class,” where he continued to dominate the internal affairs of New York State politics.
In 1898 Platt found himself in a dilemma. Because of malfeasance on the part of the Republican administration in Albany, the party stood little chance of electing a governor. The GOP’s only hope appeared to be Theodore Roosevelt, a hero of the Spanish-American War. Platt reluctantly agreed to back Roosevelt’s nomination. He feared that, as governor, Roosevelt might prove to be independent and imperil Platt’s machine. His concerns were realized when Governor Roosevelt declined to nominate Platt’s cronies for patronage positions and advanced social legislation that threatened to undermine big business support for Platt and his organization. Determined to oust the upstart Roosevelt, Platt began a movement to back Roosevelt for the GOP vice presidency slot in 1900. After battling with President
William McKinley
’s operative, Senator
Mark Hanna
, Platt’s efforts proved successful. The delegates at the 1900 convention chose Roosevelt, and the McKinley-Roosevelt ticket went on to victory.
Platt’s victory proved pyrrhic. Roosevelt soon became president following McKinley’s assassination, and his successor in the state house, Benjamin Odell, a former Platt lieutenant, turned out to be more autonomous as governor than Roosevelt. Odell quickly seized control of the party from Platt, who quietly sunk into political oblivion. He managed to win reelection to the Senate in 1902, but his power along with his spirit was broken.
Platt’s first wife died in 1901, and in 1903 he married Lillian Thompson Janeway. They had no children. The union was brief and unhappy, and the couple separated in 1906. Following his retirement from the Senate in 1908, Platt lived quietly in his New York hotel, working on his memoirs. He died in New York City.
Platt became the symbol of the corrupt political boss of the Gilded Age. Though he never personally profited from his base, he did not use his power for altruistic purposes. With the coming of the Progressive Era, best symbolized by his nemesis Roosevelt’s rise to power, Platt and other bosses saw their power wane. When Platt died, the obituaries offered little in the way of praise, and his contemporaries were even less generous in their assessment of the former boss of New York State.
Bibliography
Platt’s papers are at Yale University. For a brief overview of Platt’s papers, see Richard L. McCormick, “The Thomas Collier Platt Papers,”
Yale University Library Press
, July 1975, pp. 46–58. Platt’s memoirs,
The Autobiography of Thomas Collier Platt
(1910), are self-serving and unreliable. Harold F. Gosnell provides two good works on Platt,
Boss Platt and His New York Machine
(1924) and “Thomas C. Platt: Political Manager,”
Political Science Quarterly
38 (1923): 443–69. The best study of Platt’s rise to power and his use of power is in Francis Russell,
The President Makers: From Mark Hanna to Joseph P. Kennedy
(1976). Three works on the Gilded Age discuss Platt as a political boss: Sean Dennis Cushman,
America in the Gilded Age
(1988); McCormick,
From Realignment to Reform: Political Change in New York State, 1893–1910
(1981); and John M. Dobson,
Politics in the Gilded Age: A New Perspective
(1972). Platt’s obituary is in the
New York Times
, 7 Mar. 1910. [Source: American National Biography}
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