Page:The Presidents of the United States, 1789-1914, v. II.djvu/202

 158 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS Nathan K. Hall, postmaster-general.* Of these, Mr. Webster died, and Messrs. Graham and Hall retired in 1852, and were respectively replaced by Edward Everett, John P. Kennedy, and Samuel D. Hubbard. Stuart, of Virginia, who died Feb ruary 13, 1891, was the last survivor of the illus trious men who aided Mr. Fillmore in guiding the ship of state during the most appalling political tempest, save one, which ever visited this fair land. It is certainly not the writer s wish to reawaken party feelings or party prejudice or to recall those great questions of pith and moment which so seri ously disturbed congress and the country in the first days of Fillmore s administration, but yet, even in so cursory a glance as we are now taking of his career, some comment would seem to be called for in respect to those public acts connected with slav ery which appear to have most unreasonably and unjustly lost him the support of a large proportion of his party in the northern states. Whatever the wisdom of Mr. Fillmore s course may have been, presidents. It is a singular coincidence that both these chief magis trates should appoint their former law partners to the office of post master-general. Mr. Fillmore selected his partner, Judge Nathan Kelsey Hall, for that office. Judge Hall studied law in the office of Mr. Fillmore at Aurora. He was admitted to the bar in 1832, and became a copartner with his preceptor, who in the meantime had removed to Buffalo. For postmaster-general in his second ad ministration, Mr. Cleveland selected Wilson Shannon Bissell, for many years his law partner in Buffalo.
 * Buffalo enjoys the distinction of having given the country two