Produced by An Anonymous Volunteer
Transcriber's note:
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.
REMINISCENCESOFSIXTY YEARS IN PUBLIC AFFAIRSVOLUME II
Reminiscences ofSixty Yearsin Public Affairsby George S. BoutwellGovernor of Massachusetts, 1851-1852Representative in Congress, 1863-1869Secretary of the Treasury, 1869-1873Senator from Massachusetts, 1873-1877etc., etc.,
Volume Two
New York
McClure, Phillips & Co.
Mcmii
Copyright, 1902, byMcClure, 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
REMINISCENCESOFSIXTY YEARS IN PUBLIC AFFAIRSVOLUME II
XXVIIISERVICE 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 samedistrict. I was nominated by the Republican Convention, and Thomasthen became the candidate of the "People's Party," and at the electionhe was supported by the Democrats. His course in the Thirty-seventhCongress on the various projects for compromise had alienated manyRepublicans, and it had brought to him the support of many Democrats.My active radicalism had alienated the conservative Republicans. As aconsequence, my majority reached only about 1,400 while in thesubsequent elections, 1864-'66-'68 the majorities ranged from five toseven thousand.
Among the new members who were elected to the Thirty-eighth Congressand who attained distinction subsequently, were Garfield, Blaine andAllison. Wilson, of Iowa, had been in the Thirty-seventh Congress andHenry Winter Davis had been a member at an earlier period. Mr.Conkling was a member of the Thirty-seventh Congress, but he wasdefeated by his townsman Francis Kernan under the influence of thereactionary wave which moved over the North in 1862. At that time Mr.Lincoln had lost ground with the people. The war had not beenprosecuted successfully, the expenses were enormous, taxes were heavy,multitudes of families were in grief, and the prospects of peacethrough victory were very dim. The Democrats in the House becameconfident and aggressive.
Alexander Long, of Ohio, made a speech so tainted with sympathy forthe rebels that Sp