Page:Men of Mark in America vol 1.djvu/459

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WILLIAM PIERCE FRYE
351

addition to his service as president pro tempore, Mr. Frye's committee work included : the chairmanship of the Committee on Rules, in three congresses; on Commerce in five congresses; on the President's Message Transmitting the Report of the Pacific Railroad Commission (select) in two congresses; on Pacific Railroads (select) in one congress; to Investigate Conditions of the Potomac River Front (select) in two congresses and membership of the committee on Privileges and Elections in five congresses; on Claims in one congress; on the Improvement of the Mississippi River and its Tributaries in one congress; on Commerce in nine congresses; on Expenditures of Public Money in one congress; on Foreign Relations in eight congresses; on the Potomac River Front (select) in six congresses; on Revolutionary Claims in two congresses; on Fisheries in two congresses, and to Establish the University of the United States in two congresses. He was elected president pro tempore of the senate February 7, 1896, and reelected March 7, 1901. He introduced a bill in the United States senate providing for a Congress of American Nations, and one providing for the Maritime Congress both of which were passed. He was a member of the commission which met in Paris in 1898 to negotiate a treaty of peace with Spain. He became acting vice-president of the United States on the death of Vice-President Hobart by reason of his office as president ex officio of the senate, in which office he served until the inauguration of President McKinley for a second term when Theodore Roosevelt became by virtue of his office as vice-president, president of the senate. Again on the death of President McKinley September 14, 1901, and the accession of Vice-President Roosevelt to the presidency. Senator Frye, for a second time, became acting vice-president of the United States. He was a trustee of Bowdoin college from 1880 and received the honorary degree of LL.D. from Bates college in 1881, and from Bowdoin college in 1889. He is a member of the Psi Upsilon fraternity, and of the order of Free and Accepted Masons. He is a member of the Congregational church; was married February 27, 1853, to Caroline Frances Spear, and they had three children, two reaching maturity.

Senator Frye is one of a class of patriotic men who take up political duties and legislative cares as a matter of conscience and not as a means for acquiring a livelihood. His long and brilliant career as a legislator and director of legislation was a patriotic service possible only to one willing to sacrifice the accumulation of wealth,