JOSEPH HOMAN MANLEY - Republican Party Leader 1900 AUGUSTA ME Signed Letter

Description

1 pg. typed letter, approx. 8" x 10", dated at
Augusta, Maine, Feb. 23, 1900
, signed by Joseph H. Manley (signed "J.H. Manley"), and on his personal stationery.
A scarce typed letter signed (TLS) of
JOSEPH HOMAN MANLEY
, (1842-1905), a Maine politician and newspaper editor, he was Chairman of the Republican Party National Executive Committee from 1894 to 1896, and a close associate of Presidential candidate James G. Blaine
(see his extensive Wikipedia bio below).
Good content in this letter of recommendation, in which Manley praises John B. Dyer, a young man from Augusta, who Manley characterizes as "industrious, ambitious, of upright and correct habits, and is determined to make his way in the world"
Also signed by William H. Williams, Superintendent of the Kennebec Light and Heat Company, and a member of the Maine State Legislature.
The letter reads:
"To Whom it May Concern:
Mr. John B. Dyer of this city I have known all his life. I knew his parents and his grandparents. He has attended the public schools in this City, and is a young man that is worthy of the confidence and consideration of everyone. He is industrious, ambitious, of upright and correct habits, and is determined to make his way in the world.
I can commend him in the strongest terms.
J. H. Manley"
Normal folds. Fine.
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Biography of Joseph H. Manley from Wikipedia:
Joseph Homan Manley
(October 13, 1842
[1]
–1905) was an
American
Republican Party
official (Chairman of the party's National Executive Committee 1894–96) and close associate of
Maine
Republican politician and presidential candidate
James G. Blaine
.
Biography
[
edit
]
Born in
Bangor, Maine
, Manley first attended school in
Farmington, Maine
, and subsequently studied law in
Boston
and graduated from
Albany Law School
in 1863.
In 1866 he was president of the
Augusta, Maine City Council
, where he first became associated with Blaine. From 1869 to 1876, he was an agent of the Internal Revenue Service, posted in various cities around the northeast, and in 1876-78 was an agent of the
Pennsylvania Railroad
in its tax dealings with the Federal government.
Manley then returned to Maine and, purchasing a half-interest in the newspaper
The Maine Farmer
(formally edited by his father), made it into a major voice for Blaine-style Republicanism. Blaine subsequently secured Manley's appointment as Augusta's U.S. postmaster (an important federal post under the then-existing
spoils system
). The large
Richardsonian Romanesque
U.S. Post Office Building in Augusta is one of his legacies.
Manley subsequently became Blaine's right-hand man on the Maine Republican State Committee, on which he served 1881-1900, and which he chaired for 15 of those years.
[2]
Manley was the Maine delegate on
National Republican Committee
(1887–1900), and often served on the Republican National Executive Committee (a nine-member steering committee appointed by the Chairman of the NRC). In 1894, then-NRC Chairman
Thomas Henry Carter
resigned the Executive Committee Chairmanship in favor of Manley, while retaining nominal control of the NRC. This set the stage for Manley to personally manage the 1896 presidential candidacy of
Thomas Brackett Reed
, who was defeated for the Republican nomination by
William McKinley
. McKinley's victory in the convention gave
Mark Hanna
control of the NRC, though Manley stayed on to run the party's New York headquarters, serving as Secretary of the National Committee and chairing various sub-committees until 1900.
[3]
Manley also held a variety of state offices, serving in the
Maine House of Representatives
(1899–1901, and as its Speaker in 1901), and the
Maine State Senate
(1903–04). His wife was the daughter of a former Maine governor, and his son also became a Republican politico in New York City.
[2]
Manley's
New York Times
obituary describes him as "a national politician who was identified with vast corporate interests".
[2]
Manley married the daughter of former Maine governor
Samuel Cony
and was a driving force behind the building of
Cony High School
in Augusta.