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Rh of Denver. He taught school for seven years and was admitted to the bar in Binghamton, New York, in 1858, having studied for three years in the office of Honorable Martin Grover, of Angelica, New York, who was afterward one of the judges of the court of appeals of New York. Admitted to the bar, he at once removed to Whiteside county, Illinois; and three years later he removed to Central City, Colorado, where he still retains his legal residence.

During his brief sojourn in Illinois, he had taken an active part in politics, although he was then quite young. The period was one of keen political interest, embracing as it did the Lincoln-Douglas debate, the presidential campaign of 1860, the election of Mr. Lincoln to the presidency, and the beginning of the Civil war. He began his political life as a Democrat, but soon after coming of age he attached himself to the newly-formed Republican party. He was always a firm supporter and an ardent admirer of Mr. Lincoln, and was most thoroughly enlisted for him in the campaign preceding his election as president. He was major-general of the Colorado militia from 1862 to 1864. Well grounded in the principles of law, he soon took high rank as a lawyer; and from the time of his removal to Central City, to his election to the United States senate fifteen years later, he gave himself exclusively to the practice of his profession, having a very large law business. He was engaged in almost every lawsuit of importance tried in the territory during that time. He was interested in all the special questions of the territory. He organized the Colorado Central Railroad in 1865 and held the position of president of the road, until the line was consolidated with the Union Pacific five years later. He had become well known by the time Colorado became a state, in 1876; and he was chosen with great unanimity one of the two United States senators from the new state. The wisdom of this choice is proved by the fact that he has since been reelected four times, and has been kept in the senate almost without effort on his part, performing his official duties with conscientious fidelity and universally recognized ability.

He accepted the position of secretary of the interior in 1882, with reluctance, and after much pressure. His administration was efficient and satisfactory. His extensive legal practice and his familiarity with the questions coming before the department, from his personal knowledge of affairs in the West, qualified him in an especial manner to act upon the matters which claimed his attention.