on National Guard affairs, died Friday, April 23, 1909, at his home, 26 West Twentieth street, New York.
He was born in the town of Grafton, Worcester county, Mass., on September 10, 1847. His father, William Osborne Bartlett, was a distinguished constitutional lawyer, who took great pride in the education of his three sons, Willard, now a Judge of the Court of Appeals of New York State, Franklin and Clifford A. H. Bartlett.
The second son was prepared for college by tutors and was graduated from the Brooklyn Polytechnic in 1865. He was graduated from Harvard University in 1869, being third in his class. He was a member of the Institute, Porcellian, Hasty Pudding, D.K.E., and other clubs at Harvard.
He then completed the law course at Columbia University. After a year and a half abroad, where he attended lectures of James Bryce and the late Sir Henry Maine at Oxford, he entered the New York law office of his father and attended another course of lectures at Columbia Law School. In 1878 Harvard conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.
For a number of years he was retained by the city as special counsel, protecting the city's interests in the matter of the new parks. He was a member of the Constitutional Commission appointed in 1890 to inquire into the expediency of consolidating Greater New York.
The national Democratic committee retained him, together with Senator Roscoe Conkling, in the Presidential campaign of 1884, in which Mr. Cleveland defeated Mr. Blaine by a very narrow plurality in the state of New York. He represented the active contestants in the celebrated Hamersley will case. He succeeded his father as counsel for the Sun.
He became a member of the National Guard of New York in 1884, and maintained an active connection with it until September, 1905. In 1896 he was unanimously elected Colonel of the 22d Regiment, and had command of the regiment during the Spanish War, at Fort Slocum and David's Island.
He was elected to the Fifty-third Congress and re-elected to the Fifty-fourth, serving on the Committee on Appropriations, the Interstate and Foreign and the Militia committees. He refused to follow William J. Bryan's free silver doctrines in 1896, expressing his opinion
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COL. FRANKLIN BARTLETT
A New York lawyer of distinction whose career exhibited a noteworthy versatility
that the action of the Democratic convention could not make dishonesty honest or that constitutional which was unconstitutional. Col. Bartlett's stand on Bryanism attracted wide attention. He was again nominated for Congress by the Republicans and Gold Democrats, but was defeated by John H. G. Vehslage. Col. Bartlett was a member of Tammany Hall for many years. In 1903 his name was brought forward prominently for Mayor of New York City.
He was extremely active in club life and in society. His lists of clubs included the Union, of which he was the secretary for twenty-one years and member of the board of governors; the Knickerbocker, the Turf and Field, the Brook, of which he was one of the founders; the University, the Manhattan, the Players, the Country, the City Midday and the Metropolitan of Washington. He was a member also of the Society of Colonial Wars, the Military Order of Foreign Wars and the Sons of the Revolution.
He was somewhat distinguished in former years as an athlete. He was an expert horseman and oarsman, a crack swimmer, adept with the foils and the gloves. His friends were pleased to refer to Col. Bartlett as a fine type of all around American gentleman,
