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CONTENTS OF VOLUME II.

Allison, William B.

Down East and Out West

Eclipses.

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John Chinaman, 203. The Eclipse, 205. Charles Henry Wright, 277. American Association
for the Advancement of Science, 278. Public Statues, 279. Books for the Young, 280. The
Humboldt Anniversary, 281. Woman's Rights, 357. Modern Preaching, 359. Book-Making,
432. A Literary Outlook, 434. The Western Monthly and Its Aims, 436. George Sand, 438.
CHIT-CHAT.

Chit-Chat for September
Chit-Chat for October

Chit-Chat for November

Chit-Chat for December

Chinese Ethics

Colfax, Schuyler.

D'Arblay, Madame

Dezzenzano.

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THE

WESTERN MONTHLY.

VOL. II.—JULY, 1869.-NO. 7.'

PHILETUS SAWYER.

HE world has more work to be done

THE

than it formerly had. Since steam began to turn coach horses out to grass, and lightning has been harnessed to compete with the mails, men have become too busy to listen to orations or read heavy treatises or even brilliant essays, unless as a relaxation and amusement; or perhaps more properly it may be said that the general diffusion of intelligence and the great and increasing diversity of material interests, both public and private, developed by an age of steam, schools and newspapers, have crowded to the rear the few who will spare the time to grapple with foundation principles. Doubtless they bide their time, and, like the leaven which the woman hid in the meal, will yet leaven the whole lump. But in the mean time the world is active; and the tongue, fluent with thought and speech, and the pen of the ready writer, must devote themselves to the pressing matters which wait to be disposed of to-day, to make way for the pressing matters which are to arise to-morrow, or they fail to attract attention.

And, therefore, while the man whose brain is elaborating ideas and throwing

them out, like bread upon the waters, is respected, it has come to pass that more than ever before there is a demand, in public as well as private life, for that talent for seeing the links of cause and effect in common affairs, that faculty of ready generalization from the past and present facts therein, which men call common sense-for no better reason, apparently, than because it is not very common-and its accompanying capacity for efficient work.

This demand has introduced into the legislative bodies of this country-state and national-a class of men whose names seldom appear in the published debates, but to whom the country is indebted for such efficient work, far more than to the majority of those who contribute to the ponderous tomes of flighty rhetoric, limping logic and buncombe, (mixed with an occasional nugget, doubtless,) which are published every year as the outpourings of legislative wisdom.

Prominent among and eminently a representative man of this class, is the subject of the present sketch.

PHILETUS SAWYER was born on the 22d of September, 1816, in Rutland

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1869, by REED, BROWNE & Co., in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Northern District of Illinois.

county, Vermont. One year later his father, with his family, removed to Essex county, New York -a land of rocks and ravines and mountains, which produces physically and intellectually robust men and women, and little else. Here, from his infancy, the labors of farming (such farming as would stagger the dwellers upon prairies), his father's blacksmith shop and a neighboring saw-mill, with an occasional term of three months in the old-fashioned district school-where the standard of qualification for teaching was to be able to read, write, and cipher to the rule-ofthree, and not to spoil the children in the manner pointed out by Solomondivided his time until he reached seven

teen years.

At this age he purchased the remainder of his minority from his father for the sum of one hundred dollars, and set his active brain and strong muscles at work upon the foundations of the respectable fortune which has rewarded his efforts. From the wages of his labor as a saw-mill hand he soon managed to pay off his indebtedness to his father and give himself the advantages of two more winters at the district school.

Mr. SAWYER was not the kind of young man to rely exclusively upon the labor of his hands, and he was soon running the mill upon contract "by the thousand," instead of working for daily wages. His efforts were crowned with such moderate but fair success for that time and place, that in the fall of 1847 he was enabled to remove with his family (he had married early) to Wisconsin, with about two thousand dollars, earned by industry and saved by frugality.

He settled first upon a farm in Fond du Lac county; but after two adverse seasons of short crops and hard unremunerated toil, he began to long again for the smell of pine and the music of the saws.

The great Wolf River pinery held out tempting inducements to the lumberman; and in December, 1849,

Mr. SAWYER removed to the village of Algoma-now a part of the city of Oshkosh-and the ensuing season took a saw-mill, which had nearly or quite ruined its owners, to run upon contract. He subsequently rented the mill, and in 1853 formed a copartnership with Messrs. Brand & Olcott, of Fond du Lac, and purchased it. In 1856 Mr. Olcott retired from the firm, and in 1862 Mr. SAWYER purchased the interest of the remaining partner, Mr. Brand, in the business and property. The fact that he paid Mr. Brand over seventy thousand dollars more than his original capital, for his interest, is evidence of the skill with which their business was managed through a period when marked success in that business was an exception to the general rule.

Since that time Mr. SAWYER has continued to carry on the business-during the last five years in company with his son-and has accumulated a snug fortune of a quarter of a million or more.

The noteworthy point of Mr. SAWYER's career as a business man is that in a business subject to many vicissitudes and fluctuations he has been steadily successful and accumulating. The marked feature of his business intercourse with men has been, that he has seldom had any misunderstandings, and never litigation, with those with whom he dealt, in a business fruitful of misunderstandings and litigation. The definite character of all his contracts, and the fidelity with which he always meets his obligations and generosity with which he often exceeds them, have made his name a synonym for business integrity and honor where he is best known at home.

These details of private life have been written down less for the purpose of lauding the subject of this article than to point a moral; for there is a moral in them, which the thousands of young men who are rushing through short terms in commercial colleges to

long terms as anxious seekers for daily bread among the jostling crowds of great cities, and other thousands who are exhausting brain and nerve over Blackstone, Kent, Chitty, lex scripta and lex non scripta, dreaming of future fame and honor, or the ease of a gen teel professional life, would do well to heed. This generation is prolific in the invention of intellectual as well as material velocipedes, but few can ride them successfully.

Politically, Mr. SAWYER was formerly a democrat of free soil proclivities, and since 1856 has been identified with the republican party. Like Andrew Johnson (whom he resembles in no other respect), he commenced his public career as an alderman, in which capacity he served several years. He was elected member of the legislatures of 1857 and 1861, and Mayor of the city of Oshkosh in 1863 and 1864. In these positions he brought to the public service the same clear-headed sagacity which had marked the conduct of his private business. While in the legisla ture, he became known throughout the State as a man fitted, by his naturally quick perceptions, indomitable energy, untiring industry and personal bearing, to wield a large influence in a public representative sphere.

So strong was the confidence in his ability and integrity among those who knew him best, that in 1864 he was, by the general consent of the people and the unanimous vote of the Common Council of the city of Oshkosh, designated and clothed with full power and unlimited discretion to compromise and settle a city indebtedness of $150,000, upon bonds issued some years before for railroad purposes, of which he succeeded in compromising nearly the whole amount at an average of less than fifty per cent. of the principal, upon terms favorable to the city.

In 1862 he was strongly urged to become a candidate for Congress; but be

lieving that his private business required his presence at home, he refused to allow his name to be presented in the convention of his party. In 1864 he was nominated. The district, at the first election under the last apportionment two years before, had elected the democratic candidate by over a thousand majority; but Mr. SAWYER was elected by about three thousand majority over an opponent of conceded ability, integrity and personal popularity. In 1866, and again in 1868, he was renominated without opposition, and elected by largely increased majorities.

The fifth district of Wisconsin, which Mr. SAWYER represents, is an extensive and populous district, having a large water front on Lake Michigan and Green Bay, and important commercial interests. During most of his Congressional career he has been a member of the Committee on Commerce in the House of Representatives, and has been very successful in procuring government aid for improving the harbors in the district. If the humblest of his constituents has a meritorious claim against the government, which has become tangled up in the red-tape of some branch of the circumlocution office at Washington, or hung up for want of some impossible certificate or affidavit— not a very unfrequent case since the close of the warwar-he has but to satisfy Mr. SAWYER that the claim is just, to secure his energetic and generally successful assistance; but not till he is satisfied of its justice. No member of Congress has a more extensive acquaintance in, or more ready access to, the various bureaus in the departments of government; and it has been remarked of him, that when other members promise to attend to the wants of their constituents, he goes and does it. No member has more friends in the House, or a more extensive and familiar acquaintance among Senators. Such a representative, though his name ap

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