President William H. Taft Accepts the Resignation of the Paymaster of the U.S. Army, and Discusses His Replacement

General Charles H. Whipple was the son of Bishop Henry Whipple, known as the Apostle to the Indians. At the age of 23 he was given a position as cashier at the Citizens’ National Bank of Faribault, Minnesota. During this period an accident won him national attention. While carrying the payroll of $30,000 to an army encampment in Montana, bandits held up the stage. The guard was killed, the stage driver was wounded, but Whipple took to the underbrush with the money and escaped. After ten years as a bank employee, he joined the army. He won his rank as lieutenant colonel and deputy paymaster general in 1901, three years later being raised to colonel and assistant paymaster general. In 1908 he was appointed brigadier general and paymaster general. He retired February 15, 1912, after seeing active service in the Philippines, Cuba, and Puerto Rico. General Whipple moved to Los Angeles with his wife Evelyn McLean Whipple, who was the daughter of John McLean, Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court.

Autograph letter signed, as President and on White House letterhead, February 8, 1912, to Whipple, accepting his resignation and discussing his successors in detail. “Dear General, I accept your resignation and retirement. I shall appoint Colonel Smith to be your successor with the understanding that he will retire as soon as the law permits him to retire; and on his retirement I intend to make Colonel Downey Paymaster General. If meantime the law is changed and the three branches of supply are united under one Maj. General and two Brig. Generals, and Smith’s going out makes a vacancy, I am inclined to give the Pay Corps a representation in the shape of Downey’s appointment, but on this point I cannot be as specific because it is possible that someone in the Quartermasters Department might present weightier claims. You can give a copy of this to General Smith and Colonel Downey, from whom I would be glad to have acknowledgement.” Through this letter, we gain an interesting perspective on how Taft considered and made appointments,

General George R. Smith did succeed Whipple. He had served in Cuba and the Philippines. Then the position of Paymaster of the U.S. Army was abolished when the Pay Department was merged with the Quartermaster and Subsistence Departments to form the Quartermaster Corps. So there was a consolidation as Taft suspected they might be, and George F. Downey, who was Post Paymaster of Washington, D.C., never did receive his appointment as Paymaster General.