Ohio History Journal

MRS. JULIA B. FORAKER

A REVIEW OF HER AUTOBIOGRAPHY

By C. B. GALBREATH

In his Notes of a Busy Life, Senator J. B. Foraker

pays the following tribute to his wife:

But among all the pleasing memories that attach to Delaware

one remains to be mentioned that outranks all others, considered

either separately or collectively. It was there I met, courted and

became engaged to Miss Julia Bundy, daughter of Hon. H. S.

Bundy, of Jackson County, Ohio, at that time, and for a number

of terms, the Representative of his district in Congress. She was

a student at the Ohio Wesleyan Female College and was grad-

uated from that institution in the class of 1868. Our marriage

followed October 4, 1870, and through all the years that have

since followed she has been my faithful, efficient helpmeet, shar-

ing alike my joys and sorrows, my triumphs and defeats. No

man was ever blessed with a better wife. When that is said all

is said, for it includes and is intended to include all that is em-

braced in the entire range of the rights, privileges, responsibilities

and duties of wife, mother and companion in an American family.

Mrs. Foraker was the daughter of Hezekiah S.

Bundy who served in the State House of Representa-

tives and Senate of Ohio and in the National House of

Representatives from 1865-1867, 1873-1875 and from

1893-1895.

In her remarkable book which has been character-

ized as "one of the wittiest volumes of social and po-

litical reminiscences that have been published in many

years," the reader, whether or not he personally knew

any or many of the eminent characters who make their

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378      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

exits and their entrances on the pages of her sprightly,

entertaining and informing autobiography, I Would

Live It Again, will read with a thrill of unflagging in-

terest this drama of social and political events extend-

ing over a period from the opening of the Civil War

almost down to the present time. He will read again

and again many of these illuminating sidelights on that

long and eventful period.

Mrs. Foraker's book was finished in 1931 when she

had reached the age of eighty-four years. She lived

two years longer, in good health, the full possession of

her powers and a wonderfully active interest in the

news of the day. Her book bears ever-evident confirma-

tion to the tribute of her husband quoted above.

Through their remarkably active careers their domestic

relations were very happy, and she could write at the

close of her memoirs:

And I? Oh, I've enjoyed my long journey. There were

storms, but when the sun shone the days were beautiful indeed.

Now it is calm, yet the scene is not empty; memories gleam com-

panionably. Life is like that. After high winds and buffetings,

happily one finds oneself, at the last, safe upon a smooth white

beach covered with lovely shells.

In her book of reminiscences which has been so

widely reviewed, read and enjoyed, Mrs. Foraker opens

the "Prelude" with a reference to the famous attack of

President Theodore Roosevelt against Senator Foraker

before the Gridiron Club in Washington, January, 1907.

This bitter attack at the time surprised the guests of

the club and the entire country. While a rule of the

club prohibited the reporting of the proceedings and

guests were in honor bound not to publish the expres-

sions of good-natured jollity and raillery for which its

Mrs. Julia B. Foraker          379

meetings were widely known, the distinguished men of

the nation who were present were astounded to find

themselves in the presence of a struggle between two

antagonists who were terribly in earnest. To the at-

tack, Foraker made fiery and eloquent reply in kind.

An affair so unusual and bitter was too big to be kept

from the public.

The contest centered about the shooting-up of

Brownsville, Texas, alleged to have been by a Negro

battalion of United States troops stationed at Browns-

ville, who on accusation of this offense had been dis-

honorably discharged from the service by the President

and whose struggle for reinstatement Foraker was

championing. His contention was that there was no

evidence sufficient to warrant the dishonorable discharge

of the troops. The troops themselves persistently de-

clared their innocence. This unfortunate and mysteri-

ous event was the basis of this forensic duel, with in-

conclusive but far-reaching results. This brought to

an end all friendly relations between President Theo-

dore Roosevelt and Senator J. B. Foraker, and ulti-

mately to the retirement of the latter from politics.

While perhaps a somewhat unusual, it was a perfectly

natural introductory note to the autobiography of the

devoted wife and spirited defender of Joseph Benson

Foraker.

She soon passes from this "Gridiron duel," and

other incidents and memories of an eventful, busy and

brilliant career, to her early life in the 'fifties as the

daughter of Honorable Hezekiah Sanford and Caro-

line Paine Bundy. She was born in a log house, on a

farm near Wellston, Ohio, June 17, 1847. She died at

380     Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

her home in Cincinnati, July 21, 1933. She had, there-

fore, reached the ripe age of eighty-six years, one

month and four days.

The broad span of her years covered a most import-

ant period in the history and growth of our republic.

She was born into an environment peculiarly suited to

the development of a keen and appreciative interest in

that period. It is true that it was at this time an un-

developed country. The house, though roomy and com-

fortable, was on a lonely road between Jackson, the

county-seat of a county by the same name, and Mc-

Arthur, the county-seat of Vinton County. Times were

dull, traffic between these two county-seats was infre-

quent. However, there was even here a growing inter-

est in public affairs which was brought prominently to

her home by the fact that the father was active in local

politics, serving as a Whig in the lower house of the

General Assembly the year after she was born, later

serving in the State Senate, chosen as a presidential

elector in 1860 and voting in the electoral college for

Abraham Lincoln. Nominations and elections to Con-

gress followed, traffic on the Jackson-McArthur high-

way increased, Hezekiah Bundy prospered financially

and politically. He was hospitable and popular and

seldom happier than when entertaining in his home

around the dinner table and discoursing on the issues

of the day.

From childhood his daughter was a most attentive

listener. She grew up in a school of practical politics

which peculiarly fitted her for her part in the future

that early beckoned her to association with the eminent

and powerful.

Mrs. Julia B. Foraker           381

In her book we get faithful glimpses of the times

in Ohio and the North. She tells how her father one

December evening, under a red sunset sky, met her on

her return from school and assisting her to dismount

from the horse she rode, said to her, "They have hanged

John Brown." "I grew up in that moment," she says.

John Brown was to her a hero and a martyr, and

slavery a monster wrong that must be overthrown.

She saw with deep interest and emotion the troops

drilling for the great Civil War. She tells how crowds

of hungry soldiers came into her home farmyard at

four o'clock one morning. While she was watching

them depart an officer rode up to her and gave her his

gold watch with the request, "Keep this for me till I

come back, will you, Sissy." He never came back.

She writes delightfully of her early home. The two-

story house of walnut logs unhewn; the doors with

wooden latches and hinges; the huge fireplace; "the

puncheon floor scrubbed to dazzling and checkered by

the blues, greens and rose of home-dyed and -woven

rugs into something Eastern and lovely." "If the pic-

ture runs the danger of being brightened by time's

flight," says she, "I must be given that handicap. Who

can tell the Bible-truth about his youth?"

She brings very vividly to the reader the scenes of

her youth.  Here is one of her many picture-para-

graphs:

I remember Log House as clearly as though only yesterday

I had walked out of it--out of the door and across the spring

and through the orchard . . . the pippins falling plump! . . .

the creak of a cider-mill somewhere . . . on to the big honey

locust to wait for my father coming back from Hamden with

the mail. He'll be over the hill in a minute, riding with a slack

bridle . . . he is reading the Cincinnati Weekly Gazette.

382      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

One of her early war-memories was "Morgan's

Raid." Morgan did not reach the Bundy farm, but he

came close enough to frighten terribly the people of

Jackson County as he did of all other counties through

which he passed.

"My first school," she tells us, "was little, and red,

of course. and only a mile away. I tramped there one

winter in boots, literally wading through the mud." Next

she attended the "Big School" three miles away, riding

on horseback. She enjoyed these early school days and

entered heartily into all the school games of rural Ohio

seventy-five years ago.

While she was attending school she was gathering

a fund of practical knowledge from the numerous visi-

tors who were entertained in her hospitable home. Abra-

ham Lincoln was her father's friend, but she never saw

him until his body lay in state in the Capitol at Columbus

after his assassination. Among the notables that she

met were Salmon P. Chase, his charming daughter Kate,

Joshua R. Giddings, Benjamin F. Wade, Rutherford B.

Hayes and the "two noble Shermans." There were a

host of others of lesser note but not of lesser interest,

as sketched by the facile pen of Mrs. Foraker. For in-

stance, there was the Fighting Parson, Dr. Granville

Moody, of whom she relates two interesting and amus-

ing anecdotes.

In one of the hard fought battles of the Civil War

when the Fighting Parson's regiment was about to go

into action, it is reported that the Irish Adjutant of the

regiment rode up and down along the lines shouting,

"Give them h--l, boys, give them h--l." The language

was a little strong for the Fighting Parson, so he rode

Mrs. Julia B. Foraker         383

behind the Adjutant shouting, "Men, do as the Adjutant

tells you, do as the Adjutant tells you."

The other story was told at the Bundy home by Par-

son Moody himself. This occurred in Washington in

1864, shortly before the renomination of Lincoln for the

Presidency. Chase was then a candidate for the nomi-

nation against Lincoln. He was having a breakfast for

some of his supporters and seeing Colonel Moody, who

was in the city on a furlough, he invited him to be pres-

ent and tell the guests just what the soldiers at the front

thought of Mr. Lincoln. Chase had been told that the

soldiers were much opposed to Lincoln. When the

guests were assembled and seated, Chase called upon

Dr. Moody to ask the blessing. This he proceeded to

do. He dwelt upon the soldiers' love for Abraham

Lincoln and their faith in him. There was nothing that

they would not do for him. The blessing ended in a

fervent plea for the continued guidance and leadership

of the great Emancipator. Moody forgot to mention

the candidacy of Chase and the purpose of the breakfast

failed, although it is reported that it was a perfectly

good breakfast.

The excitement attending the firing upon Fort

Sumter, Abraham Lincoln's call for troops, and the

growing intensity of bitterness between sections and

parties is, of course, set forth in the opening years of

the war. Parades in political campaigns she witnessed

with great zest and she speaks of one particular demon-

stration in which she took part in the summer of 1863.

"Thirty-six girls, each dressed to represent one of the

thirty-six states * * * rode ten miles across the country

in an open wagon drawn by sixty yoke of oxen." She

384     Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

tells how the men "dropped their pitchforks and came

running across the fields and the women hurried from

their farm houses, wiping their hands on their aprons,"

to witness the procession, of which the wagon in which

she rode was only a portion.

She finished her education at the Ohio Wesleyan

Female College in Delaware, Ohio, from which institu-

tion she was graduated on June 24, 1868. She has some

amusing news to relate of the tiresome programs of

commencements of that period and the long list of rules

for the regulation of the conduct of the young women

who attended female colleges. At Delaware an especial

occasion for the numerous rules was due to the fact that

a university attended by young men was in the same

town. Here she met young Captain Foraker who was

in school again after the close of the war. Young men

and women will for years to come find a special interest

in the meeting of these two who were afterward married.

She relates how Foraker used to say that he never

could quite forgive his father-in-law Bundy for shed-

ding tears on the occasion of their marriage. "Particu-

larly," said her husband to her, "when you are doing so

well."  She states that that was her own view of the

matter and that she agreed with her husband. And well

she had done and fortunate was she to live the long and

busy life with her husband--judge, governor and United

States senator--and at the end of her career to say

frankly and eagerly I Would Live It Again.

In her book she is original in many ways, especially

in the choosing of subjects for the different chapters.

One bears the title "Pressed Brick" and we wonder what

might be found in this chapter. Upon reading we learn

Mrs. Julia B. Foraker          385

that she has reference to the house that she and her

family occupied in Foraker's first term as Governor of

Ohio. It had previously been the residence of Governor

Hoadly. Outwardly it was a handsome building, but

she declares, "The most inconvenient abode that a large

family of small means ever struggled with. It was the

first house in Columbus built of the then elegant 'pressed

brick'; each brick, brought from Philadelphia, came

wrapped in tissue paper." They lived in three different

houses in Foraker's two terms as Governor of Ohio.

She draws attention to the fact that Foraker's first

defeat for the governorship in 1883 did not cause him

any loss of popularity in the State.  In his campaign

with Hoadly he left a good impression and made a host

of friends throughout Ohio. He was honored by elec-

tion as delegate-at-large to the National Republican Con-

vention in 1884, and placed the name of Senator John

Sherman in nomination for the Presidency. This gave

him a wider acquaintance and heightened his popularity.

He campaigned with James G. Blaine in that year. They

had formed a friendship that lasted through the suc-

ceeding years of the life of Blaine. It was in this year,

early in October, that Blaine visited Cincinnati and made

a number of speeches, including one to the Young Men's

Blaine Club that that city recently organized. It was to

this club that Blaine, called from his rest at two o'clock

in the morning, made the following brief but rather re-

markable speech that has not found its way into many

of the lives of the "Plumed Knight":

Young Men . . . The giants of Mythology typified the

strength of young men. In the enlightened era of the Christian

dispensation young men were called to the work because they

Vol. XLII--25

386       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

were strong. Today the strength of the Republican party is in

the young men of the country, of whom it possesses a vast

majority.

The young man is always good for two votes, his own and

the one he brings. No party in the history of this country was

ever beaten that had the sympathy and support of the young men

of the country.

And it has been the chief gratification of a tour which I have

made from the great commercial metropolis to your beautiful

city, that everywhere I have found the young men on our side.

You are in the morning of life. The day is before you and

your strength is equal to it. You will have the fashioning of

the Republic--of its strength, its prestige, its glory, its destiny

--long after the generation to which I belong shall have passed

away. See that your hands, clean, pure and strong, shall bear

up the ark of the covenant.

I bid you good morning. Let us turn together to the duties

of a new day, with its responsibilities, and I hope with its

rewards.1

Mrs. Foraker has given us this impressive statement

of the spell left by this impromptu speech.

Who that heard him can ever forget the speech Blaine made

from the Burnet house that September night in 1884? Moon-

light and Blaine's silvery voice! People were bewitched by

Blaine; it was almost uncanny.

It was at the convention of 1884 that Senator For-

aker met Marcus A. Hanna.         They were soon warm

personal and political friends. Their personal relations

held until the death of Hanna, but they later became

political antagonists when William    McKinley won the

favor of Hanna in his effort to reach the Presidency.

It was then that Hanna became willing that a position

just a little lower than the Presidency should go to For-

aker, whose aid he wished to hold in the advancement

of the political fortunes of McKinley. In spite of this

rivalry Mrs. Foraker has a rather pleasing chapter on

1 Cincinnati Commercial Gazette, October 3, 1884.

Mrs. Julia B. Foraker               387

the relations of her husband to Hanna which she con-

cludes as follows:

But in spite of any and all official differences, Hanna and

Foraker never ceased to be friends. And when Foraker faced

the dark skies of 1908 he said that there was one faithful hand-

clasp that he missed -- Hanna's.

A man with a good deal of the boy in him, who would take

endless pains to please a child, was sorry when other people were

in trouble, liked dispensing happiness under his own roof -- and

widely elsewhere with his left hand -- and who wore his love for

his family most humanly on his sleeve.

That Mark Hanna was not remotely related to a man of the

same name who was so pilloried in caricature that he became a

legend of corruption in his lifetime. In the old Foraker-Governor

period with which I am immediately concerned the Hanna that

I knew was still just the Happy Boss whose favorites had a way

of winning.

Her interesting sketches of Blaine and Benjamin

Harrison, while justly appreciative of the distinguished

ability of both men, are illustrative of the unusual popu-

larity of the former and the lack of that quality in the

latter. She tells of a visit Foraker made to the Presi-

dent and Secretary of State. Blaine was most affable.

He had read in the papers of the serious illness of the

father of Foraker. Grasping the latter warmly by the

hand, he drew him aside into a private room and said:

Tell me about your father. Do you know that I have always

thought of him as a tall, spare man? I never thought of him as

a man who would have a stroke.

This touched Foraker in a tender point; he was very

fond of his father. Blaine insisted that Foraker should

use his carriage for the transaction of any business he

had in mind while in Washington; then discussed poli-

tical matters in Ohio and showed his wonderful famil-

iarity with conditions in that State and his readiness to

388      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

recall the names of persons in their section. At the con-

clusion of the conversation with a warm hand-clasp he

bade Foraker goodby with the remark, "Do you know

I have a feeling, a very strong feeling, that your father

is going to pull through."

Governor Foraker then went to the White House to

pay his respects to the President and found "Harrison

very much himself." He said to the Governor, "I've

got all these papers to look after" pointing to his desk,

"and I am going fishing at two o'clock." He then snapped

his watch. Mrs. Foraker states that the President was

not unfriendly to her husband, but the attitude of the

two men toward him simply illustrated their way of re-

ceiving the Governor of Ohio. She said when Foraker

returned to their room after the contact with the Presi-

dent he acted as if he had had a chill. In speaking of

Blaine, she stated that his ability to attract and hold

friends was due very largely to the fact that he really felt

what he said and "did care."

There are interesting comments on the "event-

strewn 'eighties," with "young Modern Life showing

the top of its head over the horizon"; the Panama

Canal; the Koch germ; the Brooklyn Bridge; the harbor

goddess that the French gave us; the first electric rail-

way; the Haymarket riots; the Charleston earthquake;

the Chinese flood; the bursting of a dam at Johnstown,

Pennsylvania; the death of Conkling and other stirring

events of the period.

Successful celebrations are a pleasing memory to

those who witness or have a part in them.

In 1888 the first permanent settlement of Ohio at

Marietta was most appropriately celebrated. The Gov-

Mrs. Julia B. Foraker          389

ernor of Ohio and his family were assigned a residence

in that city where they lived more than one week, as-

sisting, directing and entertaining. Upon the shoulders

of Mrs. Foraker rested much of the responsibility for

the successful celebration which lasted for seven days.

There have been other celebrations highly spectacular

in Ohio, including the triumph of George Rogers Clark

at the Indian village of Piqua in 1931, which was at-

tended by more than 60,000 people, but when we read

Mrs. Foraker's account of the celebration at Marietta

which was sustained for an entire week, we wonder if

there has been anything in subsequent years that quite

equalled it. Possibly the celebration of Washington's

journey on the Ohio one year ago through a period of

ten days was a close approach to it. The personal notes

that give life to Mrs. Foraker's account of three celebra-

tions will make these chapters of her book entertaining

to readers through many years to come. In a chapter of

her book in which she describes the spectacular and

never-to-be-forgotten reunion of the veterans of the

Civil War in Columbus in 1888, when Foraker was

Governor of Ohio, under the title "It Will Never Happen

Again," the reader is held with the wonderful part that

the wife of a soldier governor could have in the enter-

tainment of the thousands who descended upon the capi-

tal city of Ohio in this eventful year. Many of the

leaders in that conflict were still living and many in-

cidents connected with their presence and entertainment

appear on every page of her account.

The period covered by the two terms of Foraker in

the office of Governor abounded in celebrations. Under

the chapter "Parade" Mrs. Foraker includes a delight-

390     Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

ful account of the celebration of the first inaugural of

George Washington April 30, 1889. As one reads her

description of this he naturally raises the question

whether there was anything in the celebration of the

bicentennial of the birth of Washington one year ago

that in any way eclipsed it. Women will be delighted

with the picture that she has left of the inaugural ball

and the descendants of Revolutionary families who took

part in it.

Closely following the celebration came the nomina-

tion of her husband for a third term in the governor-

ship. She felt instinctively that this was a mistake.

She states that the nomination made her perfectly sick.

He was a dark horse in the convention against his will.

The factional division that had grown up in the Repub-

lican party, together with opposition to a third term,

led to the defeat of Foraker and the election of James

E. Campbell.

The year 1895 was fortunate for Foraker and his

following in Ohio. His friend Asa S. Bushnell was

nominated for Governor, he himself was endorsed for

United States Senator, and William McKinley for the

Presidency. This program united all factions in the

State and led to an easy victory in the autumn. In the

year following Foraker was chosen United States Sen-

ator and William McKinley was nominated and elected

to the Presidency. In the succession of successful con-

ventions and elections Mrs. Foraker was happily active.

With the inauguration of President McKinley and the

entrance of Foraker upon the duties as United States

Senator was inaugurated a series of new experiences

for Mrs. Foraker who soon became one of the popular

Mrs. Julia B. Foraker               391

entertainers of the national capital. As she observes in

her book, even before women had the right to vote they

exerted much influence in Washington.         Opinions on

matters of state were sometimes settled in the conversa-

tions about the banquet table.

The speech of Senator Foraker on the Cuban situa-

tion brought him at once to the favorable attention of

a large majority of his fellow-senators. With the rap-

idly growing popular opinion throughout the country in

favor of intervention, Foraker grew in favor of the

masses and became a power in the United States Senate.

He was a dominating force in the formulation and

adoption of the resolutions declaring war against Spain.

Mrs. Foraker's chapter on Admiral Dewey, his achieve-

ment in Manila Bay, his subsequent immense popular-

ity and his loss of favor through no fault of his own, is

an illustration of the fickleness of public opinion.

Here is in part her tribute to the Admiral:

Of all the public men I ever met, Admiral Dewey was the

simplest, the most genuine, the most completely innocent of

political canniness and worldly guile. He was bewildered by the

nation's emotional state over him . . . He was just as much

puzzled by the public's fickleness, as by its favor. If people

meant at all so lightly as that it were better to have let him

alone. "I was just a sailor doing my duty," he said to me. When

he made over to his wife the Washington house presented to him

by the nation, the hue and cry that followed left him dazed. He

understood criticism of his action no more than he understood

why he was taken up with immense enthusiasm as a presidential

candidate and then coldly dropped. At a time when the Dewey

reaction had set in I remember Mrs. Dewey showing me a room

in their house at K and Sixteenth street which was filled from

floor to ceiling with magnificent gifts from the Admiral's ad-

mirers. One struck me as somewhat ironical. This was a large

jar, quite five feet high, made of ten-cent pieces contributed by

the children all over the United States. "In God we trust."

Yes of course -- but look out for the fickle public!

392      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

"If our treatment of the hero of Manila lacked

charm," she adds "so did the measures President Roose-

velt employed to retire General Miles. The general had

a long and honorable record before the Spanish-Ameri-

can war; he added to it thereby his masterly handling

of troops and suppplies. Until Mr. Roosevelt became

President, General Miles was regarded as the hero of

heroes among military men, but the general happened to

express himself unfavorably about one of Mr. Roose-

velt's army appointments; for that the President repri-

manded him before a room full of people at the White

House as sharply as if General Miles had been a private

on inspection. All Washington was excited over this

episode."

The chapter entitled "A Lady and a Red Hat" pre-

sents the story of Mr. and Mrs. Bellamy Storer, the

ambitions of the latter, the factional difference between

Storer and Foraker, the desire of President McKinley

to honor Storer without offending Foraker, his sugges-

tion to the latter that he might not object to an appoint-

ment abroad for Storer, and the observation of Foraker,

"Good, and the abroader the better." Storer had been a

candidate for appointment in the office of Secretary of

State and Foraker who had frequent business with that

department did not care to have him there. The subse-

quent embarrassment between Storer and Roosevelt and

the recall of Storer from the foreign service are enter-

tainingly told in this chapter.

The tragic death of McKinley which called Mrs. For-

aker and her husband from a summer vacation, and the

sadness that fell upon the land following the assassina-

tion, finds its appropriate setting.

Mrs. Julia B. Foraker            393

The friendship of Roosevelt and Foraker when the

former succeeded to the Presidency, their subsequent

drifting apart and their final break over the Brownsville

affair is given much space. The succession of Taft to

the Presidency on the retirement of Roosevelt; the close

friendship of the two and the virtual dictation of the

nomination of Taft by Roosevelt; their later differences

in the campaign leading up to the presidential election

of 1912, come in for spirited treatment. One lays the

book aside with the feeling, as some one expressed it,

at the time, that nothing is as fatal to friendship as

close political association, and that it was too bad that

Roosevelt and Taft who had been at one time the Damon

and Pythias of American politics, and had played the

part well, should have ended it with bitter hostility and

charges and counter-charges from the hustings that

would not have done credit to politicians of lower pre-

tensions and which ended in the defeat of both and the

temporary wrecking of the Republican party.

In the concluding chapter "Good-Bye to the Game"

Mrs. Foraker states that "Theodore Roosevelt was not

lucky for Foraker; he was disaster," and singular it is

that Roosevelt wrote in a letter to Foraker:

Not only do I admire your entire courage and straight-

forwardness (in the railway-rate legislation I respected you a

thousand times more then I did many of the men who voted for

the bill), but I also grew steadily more and more to realize your

absolute Americanism and your capacity for generosity and

disinterestedness.

This letter Roosevelt closed with a warm invitation

to Foraker to take lunch or dinner with him at his home

at Oyster Bay.

394      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

In a similar spirit Foraker wrote in a volume of his

Notes which he sent to his former adversary:

Notwithstanding our differences of opinion on some subjects,

there never has been a moment since the beginning of our ac-

quaintance when I was not an ardent admirer of your great

intellectual power, fervent patriotism, and fearless courage.

Mrs. Foraker comes loyally to the defense of her

husband against any complicity with The Standard Oil

Company which was charged against him and lost him

his place in the Senate.

Mrs. Foraker was the mother of two sons and three

daughters. A special interest attaches to the life of

Benson, the older son. He was the frequent companion

of his father, often accompanying him on long journeys

before he had reached his teens. He was a handsome,

sweet-tempered lad who made friends wherever he went.

He was in hearty sympathy with all his father's work

and interests. When veterans of the Civil War had

their great reunion at Columbus in 1888, young Benson

was enthusiastic and expressed an ambition to become a

soldier. He wished to follow in the footsteps of his

father whose military career had a strong appeal to him.

At last his opportunity came. The country was at war

for the liberation of Cuba, a cause to which his father

had given conspicuous support in the United States

Senate. Soon young Benson in the uniform of a captain

was on his way to the theater of war; and then came the

alarming news that he had been stricken by the yellow

fever, a disease that was then usually fatal. Fortu-

nately, however, he apparently recovered. The ultimate

result Mrs. Foraker tells in the concluding chapter of

her book:

Mrs. Julia B. Foraker              395

I must speak of something repeated so often by writers that

it has became a legend, and this, I think, is the moment. Again

and again it has been said that Foraker, because of his political

reverse, died of a broken heart. No, not that. My husband's

end was hastened by an event that touched him to depths no

worldly disappointment had the power to reach. This was the

death of Benson, our eldest son, in April, 1915. Benson and his

father were singularly close; since the boy's childhood their

comradeship had been one of perfect sympathy and delight.

Foraker's health was for years an anxious preoccupation; but

always he was buoyed by his happy belief that "Benson would

be here," to see his father off, to take his place at the wheel.

That Benson could not stay was heartache too great for Foraker

to bear. The political past was as nothing.

For many reasons it is fortunate that she wrote I

Would Live It Again.      Her book reveals much that

could not be found elsewhere and it abounds in portraits

of prominent men of her time and of the famous women

associated with them through the latter part of the

nineteenth and the earlier part of the twentieth centuries.

She is very happy indeed in her sketches of Mrs. Ruther-

ford B. Hayes, Mrs. Caroline Scott Harrison, Mrs. Ida

McKinley and Mrs. Edith Carow Roosevelt.

Her husband and William McKinley were leaders of

rival factions in Ohio, but friends throughout their lives.

No more touching and complimentary sketch of William

McKinley and his devotion to his invalid wife can be

found than the one contributed to this volume by Mrs.

Joseph Benson Foraker.

A word must be said in conclusion of her patriotic

devotion to her native state--Ohio. A testimonial to

this occurs also in the volume that she has left us. In

speaking of her old home in the log farmhouse of Jack-

son County, she says:

396       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

I was born in a log farmhouse at Wellston, Ohio, June 17,

1847. That country then was almost as lonely as when my

mother's father, David Paine, built the house in 1808. The prop-

erty was grant land secured from the government. I have the

original parchment deed signed by President Madison and still

own fifty acres around the original log-house site.

EXTRACTS FROM        REVIEWS OF MRS. FORAKER'S

BOOK

From The Cincinnati Enquirer, Sunday, March 13, 1932:

Through the years of gratified ambition and of rejoicing in

her husband's success, and later through the years of injustice

and defeat, always she stood like a rock -- optimistic, cheerful

and brave -- waiting the time when she could tell the whole story

from the vantage-ground of that distance which softens all

things, from memory, ingratitude and faithlessness.

To quote her own words, "My political war is over and Time

has signed the peace; yet poignant in my remembrance are cer-

tain things which I cannot but eternally protest. I am a rebel --

at 84."

Vivid, witty and sparkling, this is a book to be read with

much delight and increasing wonder at the strength of a per-

sonality that can at 84 write with such grace and vigor.

From The Cincinnati Post, March 22, 1932:

Political reminiscences boldly telling the inside story, from

Mrs. Foraker's point of view, of events which shook Washing-

ton and precipitated the classic conflict between the President,

Theodore Roosevelt, and Senator Foraker, are climax of the

memoirs.

It is with this phase of the story, the Brownsville affair, the

famous "gridiron duel"; public accusation, later refuted, that

Senator Foraker was in the pay of Standard Oil; the loss of

friends, including William Howard Taft, in whose support, how-

ever, Mrs. Foraker wrote, Foraker never weakened -- all these

are high lights.

From The Christian Science Monitor, Boston, Mass., Wednesday,

March 23, 1932:

Much of Senator Foraker's distinguished service was ren-

dered during the administration of Theodore Roosevelt. It is

quite obvious that the two men were antipathetic. While they

strove to get along in peace and amity, clashes came over all

sorts of issues. Most bitter of these was the struggle over the

Mrs. Julia B. Foraker                397

so-called Brownsville incident in 1906. I wonder to what extent

this affair is recalled after the lapse of twenty-six years. A

battalion of Negro troops was stationed at Brownsville, Texas,

and naturally was unpopular in that section. It was charged

that one night some twenty of these soldiers rode through the

town firing their revolvers recklessly, killing one man and injur-

ing others. The whole battalion, including its officers, denied

having participated in the riot. But the President, with charac-

teristic impetuosity, ordered the entire battalion discharged with-

out honor.

Senator Foraker convinced himself that the charges were

unfair, and made a savage fight for the undoing of the Presi-

dent's purpose. It may be remembered that one collateral inci-

dent was an outbreak by Roosevelt at a Gridiron dinner, on

which occasion he violently attacked Foraker, and shook his fist

at him, while the Ohio Senator did not fail to use the opportunity

to talk back without too much respect for the individual who

was at the head of the Federal Government.

From The Washington Post, Sunday, March 27, 1932:

To think of the beautiful and brilliant Mrs. Foraker, social

leader, master of the art of bon mot at 84 almost seems like

heresy, yet Mrs. Foraker gayly admits it herself and rather seems

to glory in this fact, rather than otherwise. It has given her a

long, long vista down which to gaze at the varied scenes which

make up social and political history of the Capitol.

Her new book has been called "delightfully indiscreet." Well,

what of it? Who would care to read a discreet story of that

nature? Mrs. Foraker has a graphic, witty style, and she does

not mince words, either.  She gives us heretofore unknown

glimpses of the famous Roosevelt-Foraker feud over Browns-

ville. It is amazing to read that her own resentment in the

matter is for William Howard Taft.

From The Cincinnati Times Star, March 29, 1932:

Mrs. Foraker says that from the beginning of her early life

her husband would relate to her all the events of the day; so

she was in close touch with his work. She read twenty daily

papers each day, marking paragraphs which she felt would be

of interest to him. They built their own house in Washington in

order to have offices for the secretary. Every morning her hus-

band answered his mail before leaving for the Capitol and Mrs.

Foraker arranged her own affairs so she could go with him. She

was kept informed not only of State affairs, but national and

398       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

international, since her husband was on the Foreign Relations

Committee.

From Washington Herald, Thursday, March 31, 1932:

"I Would Live It Again" says Julia B. Foraker, widow of

Senator Joseph Benson Foraker, of life -- and says it in a volume

of reminiscences which, although fresh from the presses, is

already a best seller in Washington.

There's inspiration in this title from the pen of a woman who

is nearing 85 and whose full and interesting life has held many

ups and downs. Moreover, Mrs. Foraker is by no means through

living yet. She has just been named an alternate to the Repub-

lican national convention in Chicago and is contemplating attend-

ing although her children are trying to persuade her that it would

be a bit strenuous. And only a little over a year ago she was

campaigning vigorously, speaking several times from the same

platform with the late Speaker Nicholas Longworth to audiences

of 1,500 people or more.

HOME AT PRESENT IS IN CINCINNATI

Mrs. Foraker's present home is in Cincinnati. Her eldest

daughter, Mrs. Florence Matthews, lives there, with four of Mrs.

Foraker's grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. Another

daughter, Mrs. Victor Cushman, makes her home in Washing-

ton, as does a daughter-in-law, Mrs. Arthur Foraker.

In Washington, where memories of Mrs. Foraker persist as

a beautiful woman and a brilliant hostess, I Would Live it Again

has special appeal. But the publishers, Harper & Bros., are

pleased with the sale which the book is having all over the

country. And an English edition is in prospect.

From The Sunday Star, Washington, D. C., April 3, 1932:

A book of memoirs. Upon them no lavender scent, no minor

plaint, no rue of self-pity, such as frequently mark the long

personal reminiscence, and are so natural to it.

Instead, a swift outstepping, a friendly greeting, so immedi-

ate in effect as to suggest recollections of last year, or other near

when. From 1868 to 1912 the story runs.

A knowing, clever, fearless woman, Julia B. Foraker. At

home with Ohio politics, too, whether its tides be high or low,

obscure or open. Mrs. Foraker walks back into these two fa-

miliar areas for a revival of their respective significances in State

or nation. Idle paths leading nowhere do not exist in the adven-

Mrs. Julia B. Foraker                399

ture at hand. Main roads are the preoccupation of this observer,

this partaker, so keen of memory, so discriminating of essentials.

Forthright speech is one of her best gifts. A mind open to the

clearing up of obscurities, to the correction of passing error is

another good count for this wayfarer out of a past, sufficiently

near to absorb readers in its picturesque substance.

Among innumerable high points in this engaging adventure

is Mrs. Foraker's competently fair delivery of Mark Hanna from

the maze of misapprehension and abuse which entangled that only

half-revealed personality. * * *

In Washington itself, during the many years of Senator

Foraker's incumbency, the reminiscences widen and deepen.

First a broad survey of Capital society. A brilliant complex.

Congress, diplomatic bodies, the Army and Navy, scientists and

financiers, a body of cultured and fashionable citizenry--such

the pageantry of Washington society. At innumerable points

Mrs. Foraker pierces this with incident, episode, personalities, to

vitalize the whole. Familiar names stand here. Names that

draw out keen curiosity and sharp interest. And widely heralded

events. A spirited and competent book of memoirs of permanent

value and significance.

From The Buffalo Evening News, Saturday, April 16, 1932:

Her description of the Foraker-Roosevelt feud, for instance,

may not charm the ardent Roosevelt biographers, but there is

much in history to support the position her husband took. After

President Roosevelt's discharge, without honor, of a battalion of

the 25th U. S. Infantry, colored, following the shooting up of

Brownsville, Texas, Senator Joseph B. Foraker investigated the

case, satisfied himself that the President had acted precipitately

and thereafter championed the cause of the colored soldiers.

With the ruthless fervor for which the "Rough-riding" presi-

dent was noted, he broke with Foraker for this lack of support

and thereafter social snubs were the order of the day for the

Forakers so far as the White House was concerned.

From The New York World Telegram, April 19, 1932:

Joseph Benson Foraker was twice Governor of Ohio and

twice defeated for that office. He was later the "Ohio influence"

in the United States Senate, and as a hostess Mrs. Foraker takes

her place among the great ladies of Washington. She tells it all

in clear prose that needs no embellishing.

Stories of the great and near-great run from her pen as

spontaneously as the Convention of 1896 cheered McKinley for

400       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

thirty minutes. There is not a dull page in this sparkling auto-

biography, which is better classified as a lively record of politics

in the Republican party, Washington and elsewhere.

From The Cincinnati Enquirer, Saturday, April 30, 1932:

There is no mincing of words when it comes to the telling of

the facts involved in any of the incidents related, and while one

of these revolved about her distinguished husband when he had

grown to great influence and command in national affairs, Mrs.

Foraker has succeeded without show of bitterness in baring the

facts and factors causing her husband to retire from political

life, and at the same time refreshes the memory of the vindication

of his political actions.

From Good Housekeeping, August, 1932:

She is familiar with the inside stories, social and political, of

our capital during the McKinley, Taft, and Roosevelt adminis-

trations. It is this inside story, told without restraint and with

sparkle, that not only makes the book interesting but also illumi-

nates history by means of the personal glimpses it gives of his-

torical and literary figures such as Mark Hanna, Mark Twain,

Bret Harte, Dickens, etc. Books like these are the source-books

of the historians of the future. For us they are an introduction

to brilliant people and thrilling events, social and political.

From The Sunday Times, London, England, May 15, 1932:

If Mrs. Foraker has had to play the part of Chorus, she has

never done it in tragic mood. She is full of wit; she always

sees the colour of the passing show--though she confesses that,

while the pictures in her gallery of memory have "softened to

old prints," the portrait of Taft, in connection with the un-

founded Standard Oil rumours about her husband is "too cruelly

etched to change." One can recall no autobiography by an Amer-

ican woman so delicious as that of Mrs. Foraker, who is a born

writer.

From The New York Times Book Review, June 5, 1932:

She throws so many illuminating rays of light on the events

of the '80s and '90s and the early 1900s and on the people behind

the events that any student of the period will find it worth while

to consult her book of memories. The ordinary reader will find

it an entertaining volume, for she evidently loved her life and

lived every moment of it with zest, and at 84 she recounts her

Mrs. Julia B. Foraker               401

vivid memories with a pen that is vivacious, pungent, frequently

witty, and always interesting.

From The New York Herald Tribune Books, Sunday, June 26,

1932:

One very remarkable thing about this book is Mrs. Foraker

herself. She is eighty-four this year. She writes as if she were

not half the age and her points of view are singularly bright and

modern--never stuffy as reminiscences assuredly can be. But

Julia Foraker is amused today at yesterday, and she invites her

readers to be amused with her, or to sympathize at times, at the

pomposities of politics and society of a time really not so long

ago, after all.

From The Cincinnati Enquirer, Saturday, July 22, 1933:

Mrs. Foraker, who trod the paths of greatness as the consort

of a man high in the councils of the nation, was not content to

bask in the glory reflected by the deeds and memory of an illustri-

ous husband. She made herself a charming and useful career.

The daughter of a congressman and the wife of a man

who was twice governor and twice senator, Mrs. Foraker was

privileged to know the intimacies and undercurrents of national

politics. The knowledge she thus gained she used to the ad-

vantage of her country and her party when she came to bear

the torch once held aloft by her husband. Her interest in civic

affairs, her work with the Daughters of the American Revolution

and her associations with the great of the nation during the

last half-century are revealed in her delightful book, I Would

Live It Again.

From The Cincinnati Enquirer, Sunday, November 6, 1932:

HOW DO YOU LIKE THIS PLAN?

Recently Mrs. Foraker, widow of Senator Foraker and one

of Cincinnati's best-known dowagers, wrote the following perti-

nent remarks to the editor of The Week, a well-known and

highly regarded publication of Central Ohio:

"Those of you who have read my book, I Would Live It

Again, realize that I am past 85 years old.

"Some may think that I ought now to retire to my rocking-

chair and take up my knitting. Not so!

"I would like to live to say 'good-by' to the depression, to

the speakeasy and to the racketeer.

Vol. XLII--26

402       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

"I would like to live to see the unemployed restored to their

rightful places of usefulness and service.

"I would like to live to see the last of the primary system, a

noble experiment which has proved to be a great burden to the

people and most unsatisfactory as a method of selecting our

candidates.

"The House and Senate have today lost the high standard

which existed formerly when selection by state convention was

the order of the day.

"I would like to live, too, to see governors elected for a term

of four years and not eligible to reelection. Thus, with four

campaigns reduced to one, a governor must then work for his

record instead of his reflection.

"I would like to see the congressman's term extended.

"I would like to live to see the term of our President ex-

tended to six years, eliminating eligibility to reflection. This

would give to the President a free hand to put forth his best

effort to serve his country, and he would not be criticized for

playing politics.

"These are questions which confront us today, as we mark

the weak spots in our present methods.

"These are problems to be solved by the voter.

"We must take our politics seriously, realizing that it is the

problem of the individual.

"Why not lessen the strain on the physical strength as well

as the purse of both candidates and voters?

"How do you like this plan?

"Study it and help solve it!"

Mrs. Foraker has for years been nationally prominent in

organizations which are cultural, which are dedicated to the

memory of great Americans, such as the George Washington

Memorial Building Association, of which she is Chairman for

Ohio; not to mention many institutions political and civic. That

which she has to say on such subjects as the above may well,

therefore, be read with interest.

Mrs. Julia B. Foraker               403

OBITUARY EDITORIALS

The death of Mrs. Foraker called forth kindly no-

tices from a wide range of papers in the United States.

We reproduce only a few expressions from the press of

Ohio:

It is significant that when death closed the active and inter-

esting career of Julia Bundy Foraker there was a shock and

community sense of loss, because a gracious figure in the city's

social life and an ardent worker in the realm of politics and civic

affairs had been removed from the lines of battle.

The personality and character of Julia Bundy Foraker were

not dimmed nor overshadowed by the brilliant career of her

husband. Their influence will be felt long in her city, her state

and her country.

Cincinnati Enquirer, July 22, 1933.

The dash, courage and brilliancy of her distinguished hus-

band made a record in which Mrs. Julia Bundy Foraker found

constant pleasure. She stood by him through it all. As she said

in her book, entitled, I would Live It Again, she would do it

all again.

Governor and Senator Joseph Benson Foraker never had a

more inspiring and dependable supporter than she. From girl-

hood to her death at the age of 85 she was in close contact with

politics and she was an uncompromising partisan. During her

last year she found joy in helping a movement to abolish the

direct primary system and restore the old state party conventions.

Mrs. Foraker was a gracious woman, whose gifts of mind

and charm of manner were of the greatest advantage to her

husband on many occasions. With her passing a distinguished

name is lost to the state and nation.

Ohio State Journal.

Mrs. Julia Bundy Foraker, 86, widow of the late U. S.

Senator Joseph Benson Foraker, died at her home, 1104 Cross

Lane, Friday.

Her interest in life was retained almost to the hour of her

death. She refused to believe that her illness which has kept her

in bed for the past eight weeks, could conquer her. She con-

versed with her daughters, Mrs. Florence Foraker Matthews and

Mrs. Victor N. Cushman (Louise Foraker, Washington, D. C.)

404       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

talking of political and other news events of the day. She said

once that she was sure she had "turned the corner" to her

rugged health.

It was only a few hours before her death that her active

mind became clouded and about three hours before she died she

lapsed into a state of coma. With her when she died were Mrs.

Matthews and Mrs. Cushman. A third daughter who survives

her, Mrs. King Wainwright, of Bryn Mawr, will arrive in Cin-

cinnati Friday.

Mrs. Foraker had always been an ardent reader and especi-

ally liked to read the newspapers. Until Thursday all during

her illness she never missed a single day perusing the news of

the day and discussing it with those about her. She had been

forbidden guests during her illness but was permitted the news-

papers. * * *

Cincinnati Times-Star, July 21, 1933.

Though Mrs. Julia Bundy Foraker was born and reared in

Jackson County and Cincinnati was home to her through all her

married life, Columbus claimed her, for it was here that the

Forakers had their official residence while he was governor of

the state--four years of hectic politics, in which he was rounding

out into a prominent figure in both the state and nation. Four

times in succession her distinguished husband was the candidate

of his party for the governorship--defeated the first and fourth

times and successful the second and third.

The home of the governor in the time of the Forakers was

open to the people of Columbus, and its occupants entered freely

into the social life of the city. Mrs. Foraker formed many de-

lightful friendships in the capital city which continued after they

returned to Cincinnati. Many a Columbus matron, who does not

call herself old, heard of her death yesterday with sincere regret

and was reminded of many pleasant associations in the old days.

Mrs. Foraker's accomplishments in politics came before the

day of woman's suffrage, but Mrs. Foraker was a good politician

herself, and in addition to the help she gave him as the mistress

of their hospitable home, she was his reliable adviser and coun-

sellor in such matters always, as was clearly brought out in her

recently published autobiography, I would Live It Again. As

the wife of a truly great Ohioan she admirably filled the place

that was hers.

Columbus Evening Dispatch.

Mrs. Julia B. Foraker         405

MRS. FORAKER'S LAST VISIT TO COLUMBUS

The June issue of the Museum Echoes and the local

papers of Columbus carried brief accounts of Mrs. Julia

B. Foraker's visit to Columbus on May 11, 1933. She

came with her daughter Mrs. Florence Foraker Mat-

thews to the Museum and Library Building of the

Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society. They

reached the city about the noon hour where they were

entertained at luncheon in the Faculty Club room with

some friends as the guests of Mrs. C. B. Galbreath.

They came to present personally some rare and val-

uable gifts to the Library and the Museum of the

Society. First of these was the military coat worn by

Joseph Benson Foraker when he was a captain in the

Civil War. This was probably worn by the youthful

captain on the occasion to which General William Te-

cumseh Sherman eloquently referred in an address at

the reunion of the Army of the Tennessee when Foraker

was Governor of Ohio. On that occasion he said:

"Well I remember you, my young friend (turning

to Governor Foraker) or boy, as you came through the

pine woods that day on your horse covered with lather

and came up like a soldier knight and reported to me the

message from your General Slocum--a knight errant

with steel cuirass, his lance in hand, was a beautiful

thing, and you are his legitimate successor--I wish you

all honor, all glory, all fame. I wish you may rise to

the highest position this American people can give you."

Foraker was a man of pleasing presence and per-

sonality. His was a soldierly bearing. In uniform he

was especially attractive. General Sherman did not err

Mrs. Julia B. Foraker         407

account of her visit were the last she had taken. We

are under obligation for them to Edward Sinclair

Thomas of the Society staff.

JULIA BUNDY FORAKER

Julia Bundy Foraker was born June 17, 1847. As

stated in this review, she was the daughter of Hezekiah

Sanford and Caroline (Paine) Bundy. Her book is her

autobiography. A fuller account of the Bundy family

is found in the Biographical Cyclopaedia and Portrait

Gallery with an Historical Sketch of the State of Ohio,

Vol. V. pp. 1151-1152.

As has been frequently noted, her life was rich in

contacts, associations and opportunities to view at close

range the great and near-great. With health and oppor-

tunity for so many years she was well equipped to write

a book that shall extend the fame of those who have a

place on its pages. When many of the eminent men and

women of the times of which she writes would have been

forgotten they will doubtless be revived in memory, for

Mrs. Foraker's book will have generations of readers

long after she said "good-by to the game." When one

lays I Would Live It Again aside he wonders why she

wrote only one book. Well might the English reviewer

of the London Sunday Times say "One can recall no

autobiography by an American woman so delicious as

that of Mrs. Foraker, who is a born writer."

After a visit to Columbus on her way to commence-

ment of her alma mater at Delaware, she returned to her

home in Cincinnati. Afterward she was taken ill and

confined to her room. She continued cheerful and hope-

ful and expressed the faith that she would be in her

408      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

usual health again. Toward the last she became uncon-

scious and passed peacefully away July 21, 1933.

Mrs. Foraker was, for many years, active in a num-

ber of patriotic societies, among them the Daughters of

the American Revolution, the Colonial Dames of Amer-

ica, the George Washington Memorial Association, the

Daughters of Founders and Patriots, the National So-

ciety of New England Women, the Daughters of 1812

and the Ohio State Chapter of the National Society of

Colonial Daughters of America, of which she was

Honorary Vice President General.

She is survived by three daughters, Mrs. Victor

Cushman, Washington, D. C.; Mrs. King Wainwright,

Philadelphia; and Mrs. Florence Matthews, Cincinnati.

Two sons, J. Benson Foraker, Jr., and Arthur St. Clair

Foraker, now are dead.

Mrs. Foraker is survived by seven grandchildren:

the four children of Mrs. Matthews--Foraker Mat-

thews, Miss Mary Randolph Matthews, now traveling

abroad, Miss Caroline Matthews and Mrs. Florence

Matthews Scott; the only child of Mrs. Wainwright--J.

Foraker Wainwright of Bryn Mawr; and two daugh-

ters of the late Arthur St. Clair Foraker--Pauline Stone

Foraker and Julia Benson Foraker, named for Mrs. For-

aker and the late Senator.

In the list of those surviving her besides her daugh-

ters and her grandchildren is her sister, Mrs. Eliza

Wells, who still lives at the scene of her childhood and

that of Mrs. Foraker, Wellston, Ohio.