"Sam Ward's mission in Washington was to soothe the nerves and livers of unapproachable men." (Image by "Vanity Fair.")

Even those who hate Washington lobbyists probably would have liked Samuel Cutler Ward, a writer and gourmand who used his highly evolved social skills to become known in our nation’s capital as “King of the Lobby.” Ward was actually lauded during his career for using his talent for entertaining to sway votes rather than employing the time-tested method of the bribe. The New York Times provided a lengthy, admiring obituary when Ward died on May 19, 1884, and the Brooklyn Daily Eagle recalled him fondly as well. An excerpt from the Eagle’s clunky piece:

“One of the unique figures on our social stage, perhaps the most widely known and favorably regarded of Americans abroad, passed out of existence when, on Sunday Mr. Samuel Ward, universally known as Sam Ward, died in Italy. The cablegram that announced his death contained the news that he died peacefully, surrounded by friends, very much as he had lived. It is not probable that he had any enemies to speak of, for the true disciple of Epicurus has neither taste nor talent for quarreling. Yet, though he will not be missed as a man more potent in affairs would be lamented, the very fact that this amiable apostle of ease and enjoyment, of indeed a sort of supplementary evangel of sweetness and light as expressed in the important matter of refining the grosser palates and manners of his neighbors, he discharged with a great deal of comfort to himself a really important duty. He went through life seeking by intellignt inquiry into obscure conditions to mitigate its acerbities to the utmost. Bland, clever, cheerful, with a cultivated literary taste  and the perfection of good manners, he made everybody comfortable with whom he came into contact, himself perhaps the most heartily satisfied of them all.

In political life his peculiar talents were turned to unexpected account. The recalcitrance of the Philistine is much more largely due to the protest of his physical organism against the outrage of his diet than is generally suspected. Sam Ward’s mission in Washington was to soothe the nerves and livers of unapproachable men in his own inimitable way. It was by a due proportion of good stories and the finest wines, of a perfect adjustment of edibles and drinkables, with sallies of neat Horatian wit, that he charmed his guests into a proper condition to listen to his arguments.”