Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 9.djvu/303

 Jeremiah IV. White, Esq.

��277

��How well his measures succeeded is realized not only by every stockholder, but in all railroad circles throughout New England.

In the transaction of business Mr. White is not only methodical but posi- tive. He reaches his conclusions quickly and acts upon them with the utmost directness. Having decided upon a measure, he engages in it with all his might, bending all his efforts to make sure of the desired end. Select- ing his agents, he accomplishes the whole work while many would be halt- ing to determine whether the project was feasible. A man of so pronounced opinions and prompt action naturally makes some enemies ; but he has no opponents who do not accord to him the credit of an open and honorable warfare. In a word, he is essentially a business man in the full sense of that term. Not only in occupation, but in taste and aptitude, he is a representa- tive of that class of American citizens who have won a world-wide reputation for practical sagacity, enterprise, and thrift.

Mr. White is in no sense of the word a party politician. Of Whig antecedents, his first vote was cast for Henry Clay, in 1844, for President. Before leaving his native town his liberal tendencies had been quickened by witnessing the un- warranted arrest, in the pulpit, of Rev. George Storrs, who was about to deliv- er the first anti-slavery lecture in Pitts- field. The event justly occasioned an unusual excitement, and was the begin- ning of that agitation which reached every town and hamlet in the Union.

Since the organization of the Repub- lican party, Mr. White has supported it in all national issues ; but is one of the independent thinkers who does not hes- itate to exercise " the divine right of

��bolting " when unfit men are put in nomination.

In the winter of 1861, Mr. White and his family left on a southern trip, and reached Charleston, South Carolina, the last of February, not long after the United States troops under Major An- derson were shut up in Fort Sumter by the rebel forces. Mr. White had letters of introduction to several citi- zens of the city, high in authority, who received him kindly and, learning that he was a business man and not a politi- cian, were anxious to learn from him the state of feeling among the business men and the middle-class of citizens at the North. While the statements of Mr. White were far from gratifying, they continued their friendly relations. Previously he had written to his friend, Captain J. G. Foster, second in com- mand at Fort Sumter, of his intended tarry at Charleston. He w^as desirous of an interview with him. Applying to the Confederate authorities for a pass to Fort Sumter, it was granted him — a privilege not allowed to any other civil- ian during the siege.

On the following day, March 5, he went on the steamer Clinch to Fort Johnson, to which point Major Ander- son was allowed to send his boat under a flag of truce for the daily mail. Here a new obstacle was encountered, for the boat was forbidden by Major Anderson to bring any person to the fort. But, with the restriction that he should re- main outside with the boat till Captain Foster could be notified, he was per- mitted to go. The interview was a great surprise as well as gratification.

Reaching'Washington before the bom- bardment of Fort Sumter and the begin- ning of actual hostilities, Mr. White was taken to the war department and inter- viewed by General Scott as to the deter-

�� �