20 Whole Number 227
POSTMASTERS GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATES
XXXII. Frank Hatton, 1884-1885 1880 election and succeeded in delivering both the
by Daniel Y
Iowa and Illinois electoral votes to Garfield. As an
. Meschter
ardent Stalwart, Hatton’s reward was the esteem and
Frank Hatton at 38 had the distinction of being the future support of Garfield, Roscoe Conkling, and the
youngest cabinet member since Alexander Hamilton. Iowa Republican Central Committee. Arthur re-
He also had the second shortest time in office after deemed Garfield’s debt by appointing Hatton First
Horatio King’s twenty-two days and a few days shorter Assistant Postmaster General in October 1882 after
than Robert Wynne’s third shortest tenure (1904-05). dismissing James Tyner in connection with the star
Like King he came prepared by three years as the route fraud investigations.
First Assistant.
Hatton plunged into his administrative du-
Frank Hatton was born on April 18, 1846 in ties with enthusiasm and actively supported
Cambridge, Ohio, the son of a frontier news- President Arthur in the political bloodlet-
paperman who just then was the owner, edi- ting in New York over the upcoming gu-
tor, and printer of the Republican at Cadiz, bernatorial election
2
. He and his wife ap-
Ohio
1
. peared frequently at the numerous events His grandparents were Virginians
who joined the rush of settlers to the North- that marked the Washington social season,
west Territories after the Ordinance of 1787 exuding gentility and obvious pleasure in
opened the territories north and west of the the company of the Washington elite among
Ohio River to organization and settlement whom they were far from the least promi-
He received his primary education from his
Frank Hatton
nent. In addition he wrote extensively for
mother, the daughter of a Methodist minister. Washington’s National Republican although
It was inevitable, of course, that he would follow his there might have been some question of a conflict of
father’s footsteps in the newspaper business. He be- interest in his writing for the press while a cabinet
gan his training at eleven in his father’s print shop member.
and worked his way up from printer’s devil to editor,
Arthur’s choice of Hatton as his floor leader at the
mastering all aspects of the business along the way.
1884 Republican Convention in Chicago was a poor
At sixteen he ran away to enlist as a drummer boy in
one. Hatton’s Iowa delegation did not include a single
an Ohio regiment. At eighteen he was commissioned
delegate committed to Arthur. While he was influen-
a lieutenant and served with the Army of the
tial enough as a journalist, he was out of his depth
Cumberland.
dealing with professional politicians on their own
At the end of the War his father moved the family to home ground. Walter Gresham commented afterward:
Mount Pleasant, Iowa where he bought the Journal. “Hatton will do for some things, but he was out of
Frank helped his father run the paper until his father’s place at Chicago, the undertaking was too big for
death in 1869 and for five more years after that. him
3
.” On the other hand, Arthur was painfully aware He
moved to Burlington in 1874 where he bought an in- that while Harrison apparently had stepped aside, the
terest in the Burlington Daily Hawk-Eye which he Stalwart movement was declining and that Blaine was
made into the most-influential Republican journal the only Republican who could succeed against Cleve-
west of the Mississippi. land. However, Arthur’s campaign for nomination was
The Hawk-eye “made” all the eastern papers when
an exercise in futility. He was aware, as were a few of
Hatton persuaded U.S. Grant to spend three days in
his closest associates, that his debilitating kidney con-
Burlington in 1879 while the General was still con-
dition and its related complications made it unlikely
sidering running for a third term as president. When
he could complete a second term even if he was nomi-
the 1880 Republican National Convention deadlocked
nated and elected.
between Grant and Blaine with John Sherman as a There were barely five months left in Arthur’s ad-
distant third, the Convention compromised on James ministration when Walter Gresham resigned as Post-
Garfield on its thirty-sixth ballot. The Hawk-eye master General to move over to the Treasury. It was
strongly supported the Garfield/Arthur ticket in the too short a time to justify a lengthy search for a po-
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