In 1881, he was a candidate before the Republican caucus of the state legislature for United States senator, to succeed Thomas C. Piatt. But he withdrew his name on account of the exigencies of the situation which followed the assassination of President Garfield. In 1898, he resigned the railroad presidency to become chairman of the Board of Directors of the whole Vanderbilt System.
In the Republican national convention of 1888 he was a prominent candidate for nomination for the presidency of the United States. He was offered the position of secretary of state by President Harrison, but he declined. In 1899 he filled the unexpired term of Edward Murphy, Jr., in the United States senate, for two months; and in 1899 he was elected United States senator.
He was a member of the New York Chamber of Commerce; a director of the Union Trust Company; the Western Union Telegraph Company; the Equitable Life; of St. Luke's hospital; and of many clubs and societies.
From his youth Mr. Depew has exhibited remarkable powers of a social nature. He has the gift of meeting people with perfect ease and making them pleased with themselves and with him. This is the result of his genuine kindness of heart and his good wall to all. His original capacities have been developed and confirmed by numberless lines of work which have demanded severe thought and study. For the employés on all railroad lines he has shown great fairness of spirit. Boycotts and strikes are unknown on his roads.
To the American people he is best known for his versatile talents as an orator and after-dinner speaker. Seemingly without effort, and apparently unconscious of the effect he produces, the humor, felicity and wisdom of his speeches make them remarkable. By his innate sense of humor, not simply by funny stories, his audiences are carried with him. His speeches do not deeply affect the heart, nor could we expect dramatic pathos from one whose outlook on life is always optimistic and cheerful; but he "speaks right on, expressing plain common sense, exposing shams, making pretence ridiculous. He is terse and clear." It has also been said that "no one can love him for the enemies he has made, for he has made none." Of his methods he says himself: "My first preparation is to read one of Macaulay's essays. It matters little which one. It rehabilitates me and clothes my soul in a more
