Charles Frederick Manderson, Brevet Brigadier General, United States Senator from Nebraska, and a lawyer by profession, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, February 9, 1837.
   He was the son of John Manderson, who was born in 1799 in County Antrim, Ireland, of Scotch-Irish ancestry and emigrated to America when a small child, and lived nearly all his life in the city of Philadelphia, where he was well known and where he died in 1885, at the age of eighty-six years. The mother of Charles F. Manderson was Katherine Benfer, who was born in the city of Philadelphia, was of German extraction, and died in that city when our subject was a small child.
   Charles Frederick Manderson received his education in the public schools of Philadelphia, and when of proper age, was admitted to the High School of that city, an excellent institution, and under the general direction of Professor Hart, who was president of the faculty. At the age of nineteen he removed to Canton, Ohio, where he studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1859. In the spring of 1860 he was elected city solicitor of Canton, and was re-elected the next year.
   General Manderson was married at Canton, April 11th, 1865, to Rebecca, daughter of Hon. James D. Brown, a lawyer of prominence, who died at Omaha, Nebraska; in 1871. His wife's maternal grandfather, John Harris, was one of the first settlers of the state of Ohio, and a lawyer who achieved high professional standing and renown in the early history of the State.
   On the day of the receipt of the news of the firing on Fort Sumter, Mr. Manderson enlisted as a private with Captain James Wallace of the Canton Zouaves, an independent company of which he had been corporal. Mr. Manderson and Samuel Beatty, an old Mexican soldier, then sheriff of Stark County, received permission from Governor Dennison to raise a company of infantry in April, 1861. They recruited a full

company in one day; Manderson being commissioned as its first lieutenant, and Beatty captain. In May, 1861, Captain Beatty was made colonel of the 19th Ohio Infantry, and Manderson was commissioned captain of Company A of the same regiment. He took his company into western Virginia, among the first troops occupying that section, taking station at Glover's Gap and Mannington. The 19th Ohio became a part of the brigade commanded by General Rosecrans in General McClellan's army of occupation of Virginia and moved up the Kanawha valley. The regiment participated with great credit in the first field battle of the war, known as Rich Mountain, on the 11th of July, 1861. Captain Manderson received special mention in the official reports of this battle. In August, 1861, he re-enlisted his company for three years or during the war, and in this service he rose through the grades of major, lieutenant colonel and colonel of the 19th Ohio Infantry, and on January 1st, 1864, over 400 of the survivors of his regiment re-enlisted with him as veteran volunteers. The battle of Shiloh, during which Captain Manderson acted as lieutenant colonel, caused his promotion to the rank of major and he was mentioned in the reports of General Boyle and General Crittenden for distinguished gallantry and exceptional service. General Boyle, commanding the brigade says in his report:

   He was in command of the 19th Ohio Infantry in all its engagements up to and including the battle of Lovejoy's Station on September 2nd, 1864. At the battle of Stone River or Murfreesboro, his regiment lost, in killed and wounded, two hundred and thirteen men out of four hundred and forty-nine enlisted men taken into the engagement. It won distinguished renown and exceptional mention for its participation in this great battle and the official reports gave particular credit to its charge in the cedars, which checked the enemy's advance upon our right and restored the line of battle to one that could be maintained. General Fred. Kneflar, who commanded the 79th Indiana, said in his official report:

   Major Manderson was promoted to be lieutenant colonel and colonel for his conduct at the battle of Stone River. General Grider, commanding the brigade, says:

   During its three years and its veteran services, the 19th Ohio Infantry participated in the following campaigns and battles: Shiloh, siege of Corinth, action near Farmington, movement from Battle Creek, Tennessee, to Louisville, Kentucky, Perryville campaign, Crab Orchard, Stone River, Murfreesboro, Tullahoma campaign, Liberty Gap, Chickamauga, siege of Chattanooga, Orchard Knob, Mission Ridge, Knoxville campaign, Atlanta campaign, Cassville, Dallas, New Hope Church, Picketts Mills, Ackworth Station, Pine, Knob, Kulp's Farm, Kenesaw, affair near Marietta, crossing the Chattahoochee River, Peach Tree Creek, Siege of Atlanta, Ezra Chapel, Jonesboro, Lovejoy's Station, Franklin, Nashville, and pursuit of Hood's army.
   During the Atlanta campaign, Colonel Manderson commanded a demi-brigade composed of the 19th Ohio, 79th Indiana and 9th Kentucky.
   The brigade commander says of the battle of New Hope Church in his official report:

   While leading his demi-brigade composed of the 19th Ohio,

9th Kentucky, and the 79th Indiana in a charge upon the enemy's works at Lovejoy's Station, Georgia, on September 2nd, 1864, Colonel Manderson was severely wounded in the spine and right side, which produced temporary paralysis and great suffering and rendered him unfit for duty in the field. General Kneflar, commanding the brigade, says officially:

   General Wood, who commanded the division, says of the charge upon the enemy's works:

   The ball being extracted and much disability arising there from, Colonel Manderson was compelled to resign the service, from wounds, in April, 18651, the war in the West having practically closed. Previous to his resignation he was breveted Brigadier General of Volunteers United States Army, to date March 13th, 1865, "for long, faithful, gallant and meritorious services during the War of the Rebellion." This distinction came to him on the recommendation of army commanders in the field and not by political influence.
   Returning to Canton, Ohio, General Manderson resumed the practice of law and was twice elected district attorney of Stark County, declining a nomination for a third term. In 1867 he came within one vote of receiving the nomination for congress, in a district of Ohio, then conceded to be Republican by several thousand majority.
   In November, 1869, he removed to Omaha, Nebraska, where he still resides and where he quickly became prominent in legal and political affairs. He was a member of the Nebraska State Constitutional Convention of 1871, and also that of 1875, being elected without opposition by the nomination of both political parties. He served as city attorney of Omaha, Nebraska, for over six years, obtaining signal success in the trial of important cases and achieving high rank as a lawyer. For many years

CHAS. F. MANDERSON

he has been in active comrade in the Grand Army of the Republic, and for three years was commander of the Military order of the Loyal Legion of the District of Columbia. He was elected United States Senator as a Republican to succeed Alvin Saunders, his term commencing March 4th, 1883.
   He was re-elected to the senate, without opposition, in 1889, and with exceptional and unprecedented marks of approval from the legislature of Nebraska. His term expired March 3, 1895. In the Senate he has been chairman of the Joint Committee on Printing and an active member of the following committees: Claims, Private Land Claims, Territories, Indian Affairs, Military Affairs, and Rules. Many valuable reports have been made by him from these committees, and he has been a shaping and directing force in legislation of great value relating to claims, the establishment of the private land-claims court, the government of the territories, the admission of new States, pensions to old soldiers, aid to soldiers' homes, laws for the better organization and improvement of the discipline of the United States army and for the improvement and better methods for the printing of the government.
   In the second session of the, 51st congress, he was elected by the United States Senate as its President pro tempore without opposition, it having been declared by the senate after full debate to be a continuing office.
   The following letter antedates Mr. Manderson's second senatorial election.

STATE CAPITOL, LINCOLN, NEB., Jan. 1st, 1889.

Hon. Charles F. Manderson, Washington, D. C.

   DEAR SENATOR: The political situation in Washington seems to demand your presence at your post of duty, to look after pending legislation and the interests of the people of this State, which you, in part, so ably represent.
   Your honorable and consistent record in public life, your untiring and zealous work in behalf of the Republican party and its principles; your labor for the old soldiers, and the glorious fight you have made for the National Republican cause in the State and Nation, we fully appreciate and desire to thank you.
   We further say to you, with all the sincerity that the
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   Mr. Manderson was sworn into office, as a senator for Nebraska, on the 3rd day of December, 1883, in the last session of the 48th congress; and was in due time assigned, for committee duty, to those of Private Land Claims, Territories, Transportation Routes to the Seaboard, and Claims.
   Having busied himself mostly with the investigation of questions that pertained directly to his own state and region of country, for the space of three months, he was fortunate in the selection of a theme on which to make his first oratorical effort before his deliberate and dignified associates; a theme on which the soldier's patriotism could dominate the lawyer's acquisitions in sustaining a military verdict. He stated the question at issue, as follows: "Adopting the language of the advisory board, it asks that the Congress shall annul and set aside the findings and sentence of the court-martial in the case of Major Gen. Fitz-John Porter and restore him to the position of which that sentence deprived him." His introduction was very conciliatory:

   The plea of the novitiate for kindly recognition was delicate and beautiful:

   And then how adroitly "the fledgling's" locality was defined:

   But it had become a matter of history that General Grant, and others, had at last joined the advocates of General Porter and in this preliminary skirmish that obstruction must be reduced.

   But a judge could not rest with the defendant's side of the case alone, and hence Mr. Manderson carefully reviewed the testimony of the United States; and if the banner of General Grant was to lead the Porter procession, there was another likeness, of clear-cut features before which uncovered heads bowed "The experienced lawyer, the sound jurist, the great patriot, the compassionate man--Abraham Lincoln--reviewed the action of the court."
   Anxious not to appear ungenerous in anything he said:

   There having been a great asperity in this behalf, and the Nebraska senator desiring to cover no concealed feeling beneath a judicial robe, the following disclaimer was uttered:

   Having established the dignity of military courts, as created by constitutional provisions, with opinions from treatises on military law, the conclusion was educed, "A court martial is the proper and only tribunal for the trial of military officers." This proposition was ably sustained, excluding congressional interference by reference to supreme court decisions, opinions of attorney generals and distinguished military writers, culminating in the declaration, "If congress controlled entirely, the military system would then turn to despotism."
   The senator then proclaimed in axiomatic truth--"Obedience, strict, prompt, unquestioning, active, whole-souled, painstaking, willing, cheerful obedience is the highest duty of the soldier." Supplementing this with the language of Hough in his precedents on Military Law, and of Dr. Hart's treatise and of O'Brien on American Military Law, and testing the exculpatory evidence of General Porter by these accredited doctrines, he reached the conclusion that Porter held his superior officer (Gen. Pope) in contempt.

   An army incident, certain to touch a patriotic chord, to condem a tardy step, and show the star of Western fealty in the ascendant, furnished a splendid conclusion:

   The delivery of this speech indicated, not merely what parliamentary eloquence was to gain in the future, but what the present acquisition was, so rich in research, in scholarly adornment, and oratorical presentation.
   On account of constitutional make and moral perceptions, his memorial addresses, whether for senators or members of the house, have been exceedingly felicitous. When Senator Anthony, of Rhode Island, passed away, he said of him:

   Speaking of the life of Congressman Duncan, of Pennsylvania, we have the following:

   His eulogy upon General Logan was a genuine bugle blast from morning call to "lights out":

   in a strain peculiarly fitting the character of the man he finished his tribute to the virtues of Senator Pike, of New Hampshire:

"First our pleasures die--and then

Our hopes and then our fears--and when

These are dead the debt is due,

Dust claims dust-and we die too."

But unlike the author of Queen Mab, who saw nothing beyond the grave, and to whom death was an eternal sleep, our friend believed, with all the strength of an earnest, honest nature, in the soul's immortality. The "pleasing hope, the fond desire," the trusting belief held him through all his life and permitted him to look upon death as

"The great world's altar stairs

That slope through darkness up to God."

   When funeral honors were being paid to his friend, comrade and colleague, James Laird, Senator Manderson gave a sketch of an enthusiastic military career, such as fancy might have faltered to adorn; and of a professional possibility filling the measure of the most exalted ambition. But,

"The Aeolian harp that heaven's pure breezes fill

Must breathe, at times a melancholy strain,"

and hence the finale:

   When memorial addresses were delivered in honor of General W. T. Sherman, Senator Manderson's contribution revealed him

as one who comprehended the true magnitude of the coming war of 1861, before the civil authorities were able to grasp its far-reaching proportions; and also refuted the charge of cruelty in war, is the skillful surgeon should be exonerated who used the knife unsparingly in order to save the life of the patient. He said of the march to the sea:

   In his eulogy upon the character of Senator Barbour, of Virginia, including a sketch of his distinguished ancestry, fortunate education and professional success, there occurs a paragraph beautiful in conception and tastefully uttered:

   In his last memorial speech, ending his tenth year in congress, Senator Manderson illustrated his ability to weave into original forms, historical facts and existing incidents.

From a thrilling description of the battle of Stone River, where he and the deceased Senator Gibson of Louisiana led adverse forces, and the statement that they were also at Shiloh, he continued:

   Senator Manderson signalized his entranced upon the duties of the 49th congress, January, 1886, by an elaborate discussion of a more efficient organization of the infantry branch of the army. He discarded the idea of danger to a republic from a larger and more efficient army and endorsed the language of General McClellan that the army as in institution "has never called the blush of shame to the face of an American," and of John C. Calhoun, Secretary of War, that the fancied fear of danger "partakes more of timidity than wisdom."

   He declared that "the same lamentably defenseless condition that exists to-day has usually existed and nothing but dread disaster and criminal sacrifice of blood and treasure have ever seemed to arouse us from our lethargy." He instanced the war of 1812, wherein "we suffered insult after insult to the flag, and ship after ship was searched upon the high seas, and that the blush of shame mantled the cheek of many a patriot of that day. The war came at last; but how bitter the recollection of Hull's surrender, the capture of the Capitol by a force of 3,500 men, and the burning of the public buildings. The only bright spot in the history was the victory at New Orleans, won after the terms of peace had been made."
   He gave the amount of the standing army at the commencement of the Mexican war at 5,300 men. And could General Taylor have marched 10,000 men to the Rio Grande, he fancied that war might have been prevented; and had 15,000 regulars assembled on the field of the first Manassas the incipient flame of rebellion might possibly have been quenched.
   Of the settlement of international disputes by peace congresses, hereafter, he said--"God speed the time when this shall be so, but it will not be in our day or generation."
   Among the threatening dangers, worthy of present consideration, he instanced the "murderous Apache in ambush among the rocks, or sweeping from his mountain hiding place to murder the settler"--the restlessness of the Navajoes--tribes on the border of Kansas menacing--25,000 Sioux on the North Nebraska line vainglorious over the Custer massacre--25,000 arms bearing adults among the Mormons--riots in the large cities "seed planted by the socialists and nihilists in what they con-

sider rich soil in this land of free speech"--possible complications with foreign nations--our position with reference to the Isthmian Canal, and the interest we have in $50,000,000 invested in Mexican railroads by our people. "These and others that will suggest themselves to you are the fertile causes that may at any time 'Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war.'
   After arraying the opinions of Grant, Sherman, Sheridan, secretaries of war and presidents in behalf of his bill, and ventilating English, German and other European infantry methods, and explaining how regiments of twelve companies each would be more efficient in battle, in preserving life, and furnishing an immediate opportunity for promotions, he came to a conclusion with a delicate admonition:

   Later on in the session he is found in a spirited running debate with Dawes, of Massachusetts, Hale, of Maine, and Logan, of Illinois, on the subject of a 5,000 addition to the standing army in order to meet the necessity of the vastly increased expanse of settled territory in the great Northwest; and from long residence in the region and from personal contact with Indians in camp, council and hunting grounds, he became a very intelligent and formidable antagonist. But since he has been so fully represented in two masterly efforts involving army questions there seems no necessity for a further analysis of this, which closed with an anecdote at the expense of Senator Hale:

   In the early days of the 50th congress General Manderson indulged in a discussion, time and again, upon the subject of pensions, and defended the Grand Army of the Republic in its objects, its elements and broad catholicity. He declared it a society founded upon deep seated sentiments of patriotism, so burned in as to have become akin to religion and one which completely commands the confidence of the people. Its watchwords are fraternity, charity and loyalty. There belongs to it men of all political parties. At its post meetings and its departmental and national encampments men of all possible politics take active and prominent part, advising conservative action and conducting into proper paths. McClellan and Grant, Hancock and Logan, were all members of this patriotic order, desiring no higher position in it than that of comrades, and claiming no superiority over the enlisted men they had so often led to victory. By its creed every one of its members had promised "to assist such former comrades in arms as needed help and protection, and to extend needful aid to the widows and orphans of those who had fallen." This promise is not mere lip service. "By their fruits shall ye know them." he said, in a combat of words with Senator Blackburn of Kentucky:

that we were to have a renewal or the unpleasantness: but a moment's consideration satisfied me that notwithstanding the fierce appearance of the senator from Kentucky we

   In reply to the charge of having improperly assailed the President of the United States he responded:

   Later on in the same first session of the 50th congress the senator took part with Senator Vest, of Missouri, in a discussion of the causes which had enabled Chicago to control so large a share of the cattle trade of the great Southwest, at the expense of St. Louis.
   In this debate he gave evidence of a very thorough knowledge of the production of the beef-producing region--the causes circumscribing the range limits, as homesteading and preempting,--the amount handled by the mammoth packing houses of Armour, Hammond, Morris, Swift and Libby of Chicago, and with prices of purchase and sale, together with interest Nebraska has in feeding her surplus corn to the grass-fed herds of the plains.
   Another question of prime importance to the region of Nebraska, bordering on Colorado, and to the far west and southwest was that of irrigation. He had seen what it had done in Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and Arizona, wherever tried on a small scale, and had seen the alkali plains of Humboldt Desert "blossom as the rose," as the result of being placed "under ditch." Hoping much from a national effort at reclamation, he proffered a cordial support to the sisterhood of the barren plains.
   Senator Manderson was very fortunate in being a member of

the majority party in the senate, which made it possible for him to be the constant chairman of a committee and a member of others of great importance. A military officer, also, that popular branch of the service demanded and received his most enthusiastic aid.
   The end of his first senatorial term of office was very pleasantly, politically and officially closed by him as one of the tellers in joint convention of Senate and House, in the matter of the official count of the vote for President and Vice-President, for the constitutional term commencing March 4th, 1889.

   During the term of six years, the Congressional Record credits him with remarks upon sixty-eight subjects and with the presentation of nineteen amendments, thirty-three motions and resolutions, one hundred and ninety-two bills and joint resolutions and two hundred and nineteen reports from committees.
   On entering upon his second term of six years, December 3, 1889, possessing not only experience in the modes and forms, but the advantage of large acquisitions of material for current work, and that confidence which results from acquired success, his status established as a parliamentary speaker, there was no temptation to obscure the labors of the committee room by the glamor of the forum. And hence he made the 51st congress one of intelligent, painstaking work; officiating at the funerals of Senator Beck, of Kentucky, and of General W. T. Sherman, and in the capacity of visitor to the West Point Military Academy and from the committees on Territories, Printing, Indian and Military Affairs, and of conferences, presenting 191 reports, with 106 bills and joint resolutions, thirty-two motions and resolutions and many amendments--and having acted as a conferee between House and Senate on twenty-four different occasions.

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