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UNIVERSITY COURIER.
ring times were those, and the correspondent's pencil was worn and weary when midnight came.
It was Adam's good fortune to be intimate with Andrew Johnson, and the World of the day will show some excellent work. Adams was always both lucky and skillful in the matter of Presidents' messages and reports of the Secretaries of the Treasury—in those days of sensational importance. I remember on one occasion he created a great excitement, not only among correspondents, but in the Treasury Department and in Congress. He printed, in the World, a report of Secretary McCulloch to Congress in advance of its delivery, and there was the greatest excitement for a time. Rival correspondents were reprimanded from their home offices, and McCulloch fumed and tore around like a mad bull. Investigations followed, but where the report came from was never known. It was a tremendous piece of news. Wall street operators had offered a thousand dollars for the report, and newspapers were eager for it at any price. Gen. Schenck was then chairman of the ways and means committee, and it was his copy that Adams got hold of. The following year Adams was not so lucky, but he could not get along without the report of the Secretary of the Treasury, and sure enough the World came out with a column or two of the report. There was another excitement, but it was of short duration. When the Secretary came to examine the last "report" he found that it was a clever putting-together of his well-known ideas, and the insertion of figures attainable by anybody. It was at this time that Mr. McCulloch made use of the remark now so common on the "Row," namely, "What is true in that report (meaning Adams') is old, and what is new is false."
Then came the swinging round the circle by President Johnson, his intemperate speeches and his intemperate drinking, and then his impeachment. Adams, in all these stirring times, was in charge of the World's interests in this city, and responsible for the tone of the dispatches and for the news. The trial of Johnson was an important epoch in our history. It was the first time a President was ever put on trial of impeachment. Later events are well known, but in all of them Mr. Adams in common with other correspondents figured conspicuously. In the Catacazy trouble, Mr. Adams was the figure behind Secretary Fish. It is a short story. Catacazy, the Russian minister, was a rascally little intriguer, and was no doubt pecuniarily interested in the celebrated Perkins claim. He wrote
letters attacking Secretary Fish, and President Grant—going so far as to say that he was corrupt. He wanted to attack them covertly while flattering them to their faces. These letters were printed in the World. He overreached himself and told certain facts inadvertently which were known to nobody except Grant, Fish and himself. Thus Fish caught him. Mr. Adam's manly conduct in this transaction made of Mr. Fish a sincere friend. When Adams found that Catacazy was using him as an instrument to vent his private spleen and injure the relations between the United States and Russia, he told Mr. Fish who wrote the articles in the World. Adams' correspondence with Mr. Fish in this important matter, which came near severing the friendship between the two countries, is preserved in a public document printed by order of Congress. Mr. Fish, in an official letter demanding the recall of Catacazy, referred to a correspondence he had had with Mr. Adams, and alluded to him as "the very intelligent, careful and reputable head of the office in this city of the New York World."
The campaign of 1876, the bitter contest, the doubt, the Electoral Commission, the countingin (perhaps I ought to say the election) of Mr. Hayes—these facts are remembered by all. It is enough to say here that Mr. Adams figured conspicuously in the political intrigues of the time. He represented the leading Democratic paper of the country, and he had to know, and did know, what was going on.
I have referred to some of the most important events that have occurred in the past twenty years and which many have forgotten and few ever refer to. People do not seem to know what an important age they live in. Mr. Adams has simply served to show how soon important history is trodden under foot in the onward march of destiny. In political life how many he has seen come and go—high in position one day, and inflated with their own importance; the next day out of office and sunk so low that none would do them reverence.
Mr. Adams, in leaving Newspaper Row, leaves behind him many good fellows who sincerely regret his departure. His form has become a landmark in that much-abused section—abused, believe me, more than it deserves to be. In the twenty-odd years of service Adams has been pre-eminent for his trustworthiness. He was never a brilliant writer, but he has always been a reliable one. He was never at a loss to state a point squarely and strongly, but he has always