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Reminiscences of Sixty Years in Public Affairs, Vol. 2 By: George S. (George Sewall) Boutwell (1818-1905) |
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Footnotes are at the end of the chapter. A few commas have been moved or added for clarity. Obsolete spellings of place names have been retained; personal names
and obvious typographical errors have been corrected.
REMINISCENCES
OF
SIXTY YEARS IN PUBLIC AFFAIRS
VOLUME II
Reminiscences of
Sixty Years
in Public Affairs
by George S. Boutwell
Governor of Massachusetts, 1851 1852
Representative in Congress, 1863 1869
Secretary of the Treasury, 1869 1873
Senator from Massachusetts, 1873 1877
etc., etc., Volume Two New York
McClure, Phillips & Co.
Mcmii
Copyright, 1902, by
McClure, Phillips & Co. Published May, 1902. N.
CONTENTS XXVIII Service in Congress
XXIX Incidents in the Civil War
XXX The Amendments to the Constitution
XXXI Investigations Following the Civil War
XXXII Impeachment of Andrew Johnson
XXXIII The Treasury Department in 1869
XXXIV The Mint Bill and the "Crime of 1873"
XXXV Black Friday September 24, 1869
XXXVI An Historic Sale of United States Bonds in England
XXXVII General Grant's Administration
XXXVIII General Grant as a Statesman
XXXIX Reminiscences of Public Men
XL Blaine and Conkling and the Republican Convention of 1880
XLI From 1875 to 1895
XLII The Last of the Ocean Slave Traders
XLIII Mr. Lincoln as an Historical Personage
XLIV Speech on Columbus
XLV Imperialism as a Public Policy
INDEX
REMINISCENCES
OF
SIXTY YEARS IN PUBLIC AFFAIRS
VOLUME II
XXVIII
SERVICE IN CONGRESS My election to Congress in 1862 was contested by Judge Benjamin F.
Thomas, who was then a Republican member from the Norfolk district.
The re districting of the State brought Thomas and Train into the same
district. I was nominated by the Republican Convention, and Thomas
then became the candidate of the "People's Party," and at the election
he was supported by the Democrats. His course in the Thirty seventh
Congress on the various projects for compromise had alienated many
Republicans, and it had brought to him the support of many Democrats.
My active radicalism had alienated the conservative Republicans. As a
consequence, my majority reached only about 1,400 while in the
subsequent elections, 1864 '66 '68 the majorities ranged from five to
seven thousand.
Among the new members who were elected to the Thirty eighth Congress
and who attained distinction subsequently, were Garfield, Blaine and
Allison. Wilson, of Iowa, had been in the Thirty seventh Congress and
Henry Winter Davis had been a member at an earlier period. Mr.
Conkling was a member of the Thirty seventh Congress, but he was
defeated by his townsman Francis Kernan under the influence of the
reactionary wave which moved over the North in 1862. At that time Mr.
Lincoln had lost ground with the people. The war had not been
prosecuted successfully, the expenses were enormous, taxes were heavy,
multitudes of families were in grief, and the prospects of peace
through victory were very dim. The Democrats in the House became
confident and aggressive. Alexander Long, of Ohio, made a speech so tainted with sympathy for
the rebels that Speaker Colfax came down from the chair and moved a
resolution of censure. Harris, of Maryland, in the debate upon the
resolution, made a speech much more offensive than that of Long. As a
consequence, the censure was applied to both gentlemen and as a further
consequence, the friends of the South became more guarded in
expressions of sympathy. It is true also, that there were many
Democrats who did not sympathize with Harris, Long, and Pendleton.
Voorhees of Indiana was also an active sympathizer with the South. I
recollect that in the Thirty eighth or Thirty ninth Congress he made a
violent attack upon Mr. Lincoln, and the Republican Party. The House
was in committee, and I was in the chair. Consequently I listened
attentively to the speech. It was carefully prepared and modeled
apparently upon Junius and Burke a model which time has destroyed... Continue reading book >>
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