Thomas B. Reed : parliamentarian

Front matter

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Wilmington College Library

Vt Y*

Preface

“Anything but the truth,” is reported to have been Speaker Reed’s reply to a congressman who sought his advice as to what to include in a memorial address on a deceased colleague. It is safe to say, however, that in his own case Reed would have de¬ manded “the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.”

In the following study, admitting the difficulty of ascertain¬ ing the truth about any man, and especially about one whose life was spent in political controversy, the author has endeavored to let Reed tell his own story, explain his own course, and give his own opinions on the issues of the day. He has also attempted to show him as he appeared to his contemporaries. It is hoped therefore, that the reader may be enabled to make a truthful estimate of one of the great Americans of the last century.

The author takes this opportunity to express his appreciation of advice and assistance from many persons interested in the subject. In addition to Mr. Allan Nevins, whose services as editor of this series have been invaluable, he is especially in¬ debted to the Hon. J. Frank Aldrich of Chicago, Ill., Dr. E. N. Allen and Mr. William A. Jones of Boston, Mass., Messrs. J. C. Hamlen and Frank D. Marshall of Portland, Me., Mr. John E. Lodge and Dr. Allen Johnson of Washington, D. C. Mr. Gerald G. Wilder, Librarian of Bowdoin College and Miss Ethel P. Hall of the Maine Historical Society have given valuable aid. He is also greatly indebted to his sister for cleri¬ cal assistance, to his colleagues Professor Emeritus James F. Colby and Professor James P. Richardson for advice and criti-

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PREFACE cism in the course of preparing the manuscript, to Professor Frank M. Anderson for calling his attention to certain sources of information, and to Professor Arthur H. Basye for assistance in reading proof.

CHAPTER

I Early Life

“The great and representative citizen of the American Republic”-j^;Birth-**‘-E3renta;ge;:::=Reed family in New England — Boyhood — Attends public schools of Portland, Me. — Fondness for reading — Early religious interests — Enters Bowdoin College — Impressions of fellow students — Financial troubles — Scholastic record — Graduation honors — Abandons thought of entering min¬ istry — Teaches school — Studies law — Temporary residence in California — Serves as assistant paymaster in navy.

II State Politics . 20

Returns to Portland on discharge from navy — Admission to Maine bar — Elected to legislature — Opposes capital punish¬ ment — Resolutions on William Pitt Fessenden — Value of state legislative experience — Elected attorney-general — Marries Mrs. Susan P. Jones — Home life — Services as attorney-general — Reed as prosecutor — Collects from bondsmen of defaulting State treas¬ urer — Railroad consolidation — Private practice in Portland —

City solicitor — Contest for Republican nomination in First Con¬ gressional District — Congressional campaigning in 1876 — Chang¬ ing character of issues — Elected to 45th Congress.

III Early Years in Congress . 37

Begins congressional service — Opportunities in 1877 — Reed anti-Southern but not an habitual waver of the bloody shirt — Service on Committee on Territories — Clash with Fernando Wood — Speech on William King — Speech on diplomatic appro¬ priation bill — Opposes Bland-Allison Act — Assails William and Mary College indemnity bill — Appointed to select committee on alleged frauds in presidential election of 1876 — Membership of committee — Character of investigation — Reed on Louisiana conditions — The cipher telegrams and Republican party strategy — Reed’s examination of William T. Pelton — 'Examines Samuel J. Tilden — Committee report and presidential election of 1880 — Reed’s ability and party services.

IV Continued Labors in Congress . 56

Congressional campaign of 1878 — The Greenback movement in Maine — Reed supports sound money — Reed’s ability on the stump — Reelected — Democrats win 46th Congress — Special ses¬ sion of 1879 — Clash between President Hayes and Congress —

Reed assails inflationists — Reviving business prosperity — The problem of surplus revenue — Speech on Federal election laws — “Embalming a fly” — The rules revision of 1880 — Importance — “Riders” and “disappearing quorum” — General opposition to change — Reed sustains disappearing quorum — Power of Appro¬ priations Committee — Reed opposes system — Subsequent change

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of attitude — Adoption of revised rules — The crisis in Maine — Fusion of Democrats and Greenbackers, 1880 — Reed narrowly escapes defeat — Election contested in House — Republican victory in national elections of 1880 — Reed declines to run for Senate — Satirical comments on the upper chamber.

V The Rising Leader . 79

Republican party in control, 1881-83 — Fails to utilize oppor¬ tunities — 'Consequences of President Garfield’s death — Lack of leadership in House — J. Warren Keifer elected Speaker — Reed becomes chairman of Judiciary Committee and a member of Committee on Rules — New opportunities — Reed’s opinion of Speaker’s power — Proposes further change of rules — Filibuster¬ ing in South Carolina election contest — Reed reports special rule to curb filibuster — Great debate between Reed and Samuel J. Randall — Importance of issue — Reed sustained — Significance of victory — Democratic protest — Reed now real leader of House Republicans — The tariff bill of 1883 — Reed a protectionist — Uses special report of Rules Committee to frustrate dilatory tactics of Democrats — The tariff bill forced to passage — Criticism of con¬ duct — The constitutional issue — Other activities in 47th Congress — Wit and sarcasm in debate — Reelected in 1882 — Dislike for party hack work — Growing dissatisfaction of country with Republican rule — The Mugwump movement — Reed a party regular.

VI Reed vs. Randall . 102

Democratic control of House 1883-86 — Samuel J. Randall de¬ feated for speakership nomination in 48th Congress — John G. Carlisle as Speaker — Randall’s power as chairman of Appropri¬ ations — Keifer deposed as Republican leader — Reed becomes member of Ways and Means — Renewed contest to amend the code — Argues for efficiency and responsibility — Randall’s opposi¬ tion — Reed’s amendments rejected — Accumulating business in House — Resultant power of Appropriations Committee — Tariff legislation fails — Cleveland administration begins — Reed’s opin¬ ions on the new regime — Demand for procedural reform in 49th Congress — Revolt against Randall — Reed nominated for speakership — Revision of the rules — Appropriations Committee stripped of power — Additional committees given power to re¬ port appropriations — Inadequate changes in order of business —

Bad results of “scatter” policy — Accomplishments of 49th Con¬ gress — Futility of patch-work reform.

VII Interests . 124.

Contrasts in Reed’s character — Early years in Washington — Personal appearance — His great size and strength asset in the chair — Fondness for walking — Interest in travel — Impressions of Italian Chamber of Deputies — Summer home at Grand Beach,

Me. — Anecdotes — Devotion to family — Home life in Portland,

Me. — The Cumberland Club — Reed as conversationalist — Opin¬ ion of Henry Cabot Lodge — Reed and Nelson Dingley — Care¬ lessness in dress — Fondness for card games — The poker player —

Book collector and student — Comments on Lodge’s Washington

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— Fondness for poetry — A. Maurice Low’s impressions of Reed —

Reed as student of French — Comment on Balzac — Diary — Politi¬ cal speeches too concise for literary allusion — Speech on behalf of Library of Congress — Correspondence.

VIII Opinions . 146

Reed on limitations of the statesman — Opinion of reform and reformers — Philosophical attitude on political issues — Views on social progress — Human inertia and indifference toward change — Belief in democracy — Support of woman suffrage — Partisan¬ ship — Distrust of Democratic character and capacity — Opposi¬ tion to governmental innovations — Reform of procedure really in interest of popular control — A liberal constructionist on constitu¬ tional issues — Dislike for pork barrel legislation — Supporter of civil service reform — Quarrel with President Harrison — Con¬ servatism on economic questions — Comments on the business cycle — Defender of property — Improvement of material condi¬ tions in American life — Comments on Mississippi River improve¬ ment — Belief in essential unity of American people — Comments on the labor question — High wages as basis of prosperity — Pro¬ tection and prosperity — Defends the corporation — Contempt for fear of monopoly — Defends the Trust system — Belief in railroad consolidation — Reed’s economic doctrines not a political asset.

IX Legislative Impotence . 175

Character of 50th Congress — Importance of tariff issue in 1888 — President Cleveland’s demand for tariff reform — The Mills Bill — Reed’s great speech, May 19, 1888 — Ineffectiveness of House of Representatives — 'Growing popular interest in rules — Filibuster on refunding of tjfrec t tax — Obstruction in short ses¬ sion — Weaver’s filibuster-on behalf of Oklahoma Bill — Helpless¬ ness of majority — Reed fails to secure amendment of rules — Prospects for Democratic obstruction in next Congress — Repub¬ licans announce intention to change procedure — Minority “rights” — Randall’s defence of existing system — Reed publishes views of House situation — Henry Cabot Lodge on the rules — Roger Q. Mills and James B. McCreary give Democratic view — The impending parliamentary struggle.

X The Great Quorum Battle . 195

The 51st Congress — Narrow Republican majority — The con¬ test for speakership — Importance of office — John G. Carlisle on its duties — Reed wins — Induction to office — Quiet opening of ses¬ sion — McKinley becomes floor leader and chairman of Ways and Means — McKinley’s character and services — Reed’s committee appointments — The Silcott defalcation — Importance of the quo¬ rum issue — Democrats support traditional principle of “voting” as against a “present” quorum — Dissatisfaction with “general parliamentary law” — Reed’s position — Election case of Smith vs. Jackson — Reed counts a quorum — Disorder in the House — Reed’s famous ruling — Appeal from the Speaker’s decision — Great debate on parliamentary issue — Reed’s ruling sustained by party vote — Continued outbreaks on floor — Reed’s ruling on dilatory motions — Dominance of the Speaker.

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XI The Reed Rules .

. 217

Smith vs. Jackson case closed — William L. Wilson on “general parliamentary law” — Preparation of new code of rules — Reed’s personal work — Public attitude toward situation in House — Reed’s defence — Introduction of Reed rules — Revolutionary character of changes — Dilatory motions uprooted — The “pres¬ ent” quorum substituted for “voting” quorum — Quorum in Com¬ mittee of the Whole reduced and procedure simplified — Renova¬ tions in order of business — -'Great increase in power of Speaker — Cannon’s defence of new code — Debate on rules — Significance of changes — “The school of Hamilton is placed in control” —

Reed rules adopted — Denunciations of the Speaker — The Na¬ tion’s criticisms — Reed’s reliance on verdict of history.

XII The School of Hamilton Legislates . 235

The minority accepts the situation — 'Great measures of the 51st Congress — The Federal Election Bill — Revival of sectional bit¬ terness — Increased power of Committee on Rules — Used to force Federal Election Bill through House — Passage blocked in Senate — The McKinley tariff — Bad political results — Reed’s explana¬ tion of popular opposition — Bill eventually advantageous to McKinley — Silver Purchase Bill — Reed blocks designs of Free Silver advocates — Great parliamentary struggle in House — Compromise measure passed — Summer heat in Washington — Election contests — “Kicking Buck” Kilgore — Democratic victory in 1890 — The 51st Congress completes its task — Important meas¬ ures adopted — The Billion Dollar Congress — Cannon’s criticism of financial methods — Reed’s valedictory — Theodore Roosevelt’s tribute.

XIII The Debater . 255

Reed as floor leader and debater — Alexander’s opinion — Reed’s views on purposes of debate — “Thank God, the House is no longer a deliberative body” — Reed as a public speaker — Use of the mock-heroic — The tariff reformer in action — Skill in stat¬ ing propositions — Principle involved in William and Mary bill — Analysis of free silver — Cannon’s opinion of Reed — Clash with Speaker Crisp August 29, 1893 — Debate with Bourke Cockran on Wilson Bill — Reed’s longer speeches — Real forte rough and tumble debate — Speech at Republican national convention of 1892 a failure — Rare power of invective and retort — On the stump — Contributes to magazines and newspapers.

XIV Anti-Climax

Reed’s popularity unaffected by Democratic victory of 1890 — Small Republican minority in 52nd Congress — Crisp elected Speaker — Reed’s comment on Rules Committee — The Reed rules repudiated — Reed defends rules — Few parliamentary contests — The currency situation — Free Silver and Democratic discord — Reed on bimetallism — Comments on Bryan — Democratic econ¬ omy — “Two Congresses Contrasted” — Reed and President Har¬ rison — Opposes President’s renomination — Presidential cam¬ paign of 1892 — Financial situation critical — Supreme Court upholds the “present” quorum rule — The panic of 1893 — Con-

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gress in special session — Reed supports Cleveland’s financial policy — Speech for repeal of Silver Purchase Act, August 26,

1893 — Repeal carried in House — Delay in Senate — Reed’s com¬ ments — Adjournment.

XV Vindication . 294

Reed’s position in Republican party 1893-95 — Comments on Democratic control of national government — The Sargent por¬ trait — Adoption of the rules — Some of Reed’s reforms accepted — Reed’s filibuster at close of special session — Democratic control slipping — Reed plans to force Crisp to count a quorum — Re¬ peated clashes with the Speaker — Business at a standstill — The Democrats adopt quorum counting rule — The Wilson tariff — Reed’s speech of February 1, 1894 — Dramatic scenes in the House — The Wilson Bill mangled in the Senate — Reed excoriates Democrats — Reed’s blunder in currency discussion — The Fort¬ nightly Review interview on bimetallism — Republican evasions on currency question — Renewed financial stringency — The Pres¬ ident’s recommendations — Reed’s counter proposals — Unfortu¬ nate effects on his political prospects — Bryan on the gold stand¬ ard — Reed votes for the Gold Bond Bill — Roosevelt’s comment.

XVI Presidential Candidate . 321

Reed’s predictions on congressional election of 1894 — Over¬ whelming Republican success — Reed reelected Speaker — Com¬ mittee appointments — Regarded as candidate for presidential nomination — Apparent change in conduct — Greater dignity and restraint — The nomination contest — Its place in an estimate of Reed’s career — Character and principles render success difficult — Strength and weakness as candidate — Advantages of McKin¬ ley — Popular interest in restoration of protection — Reed alien¬ ates potential supporters — Financial handicaps — Recollections of J. Frank Aldrich — Hanna’s pre-convention campaign — Reed’s loss of Vermont and its consequences — The currency question — Reed’s course unfortunate — McKinley’s success in Illinois — The convention — Reed’s followers stand for gold plank — The Manley incident — McKinley the logical candidate — Reed enters cam¬ paign — Renders effective support — Comment on Kansas speeches — Republican victory.

XVII The Last Speakership . 351

The 55th Congress in special session, March 15, 1897 — Reed re¬ elected Speaker — Supports McKinley administration — The Dingley tariff bill — Speaker refuses to appoint House committees except Ways and Means — Quells discontent — The Dingley Bill adopted — Rise of the Cuban question — Demand for American intervention — Reed’s dislike for jingoism — Suppresses move to pass resolution recognizing Cuban belligerency — President anx¬ ious for peaceful solution — Reed supports administration — The Maine explosion — Appropriation for national defence — Reed keeps House under control — President sends war message — Dis¬ agreement between House and Senate — The declaration of war — Reed’s disgust — Hawaiian annexation — Reed forced to give way — Speaker dependent on will of House — The aftermath of xii CONTENTS

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the war — Reed opposes further annexations — Growing embar¬ rassments of position — Prestige as parliamentarian — Tribute from New York Republican delegation.

XVIII Retirement. The Man and His Work .

Reed’s Jekyll Island trip — Retirement from Congress — Finan¬ cial reasons — Dissatisfied with new party policies — Opinions on expansion — Trip to Europe, 1899 — Resignation from Congress — Farewell address to constituents — Admitted to New York Bar — Career as corporation lawyer — Life in New York — Failing health — Visit to Washington — Brief illness and death — Contem¬ porary tributes — Importance of Reed’s services — Inadequate grasp of certain American problems — Achievements as parlia¬ mentarian — 'Personal qualities — Greatness of character — Sar¬ casm — Characteristic remarks — Wit and Humor — Punctilious in official relations — Dominance over House members — Integrity — Murat Halstead on Reed — Thomas W. Laffan’s tribute.

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ILLUSTRATIONS

Thomas Brackett Reed . Fvontis'piccc

FACING

PAGE

Portland during Reed’s boyhood . x6

Bowdoin College in i860 . 32

Redfield Proctor . ^g

William P. Frye . 48

Clearing the road . 80

Nelson A. Dingley . 1x2

John G. Carlisle . 112

Reed at various stages of his career . 128

Reed’s reelection, 1890 . 160

Reed as the Czar, 1890 . 160

Henry Cabot Lodge . 192

Reed as master of Congress . 224

William McKinley . 240

The contest for the nomination, 1892 . 272

Joseph G. Cannon . 304

Marcus Alonzo Hanna . 336

Reed, McKinley, and Harrison, 1896 . 352

The Monument at Portland, Me . 384

PARLIAMENTARIAN

Chapter I

On Monday December 8, 1902, the House of Representatives met as usual at 1 2 o’clock. The Chaplain prayed, reminding the members of those great souls, the leaders among men, “who have breathed their spirits into the institutions of our country,” one of whom had unexpectedly passed away the day before. The Jour¬ nal was read and approved} the Speaker laid before the House some routine messages from the President} leaves of absence were granted, and then James S. Sherman of New York rose to make formal announcement of the death of Thomas Brackett Reed. “He was so great, his service to his country so valuable,” declared Mr. Sherman, “that it seems to me we may fitly depart from what is the usual custom of the House when one not in pub¬ lic life dies.” He thereupon offered a resolution that the House adjourn in honor of the dead. “A distinguished statesman,” so ran the last clause of the resolution, “a lofty patriot, a cultured scholar, an incisive writer, a unique orator, an unmatched de¬ bater, a master of logic, wit, satire, the most famous of the world’s parliamentarians, the great and representative citizen of the American Republic has gone into history.”

“They have their exits and their entrances.”

Such was Reed’s exit. His entrance was unobtrusive enough. He was born October 18, 1 839, in a small two-story frame tene¬ ment on Hancock Street, Portland, Maine. Almost next door stands the birthplace of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. His father, Thomas Brackett Reed, Sr., was also a native of Port¬ land and his mother, Mathilda Prince Mitchell, was born in the neighboring town of North Yarmouth. There were two children in the family, a younger sister, Harriet, being born in June, 1846.

Both the Reed and Mitchell families had been resident in New England from its beginnings in the early seventeenth cen¬ tury. Thomas Reade, the founder of the line in New England, had come to Massachusetts with John Winthrop in 1630. Reed’s mother traced her decent from Experience Mitchell and Jane Cook, both of whom were identified with the establishment of the Plymouth colony, the latter having been a passenger on the Mayflower.

His paternal grandmother, Mary Brackett, was a direct de¬ scendant of George Cleve, who played a leading part in the settlement of the Portland region. There has been a good deal of historical controversy regarding the principles and perform¬ ances of Cleve, but he appears in any event to have been a man of great ability and unusual force of character. He doubtless had both the virtues and defects of the pioneer, and pioneering at every stage of American development was a rough occupation. On the basis of heredity Reed was certainly a thorough-going Yankee. He had in full measure the shrewdness, humor, and essential honesty characteristic of the best of his type. In his political development he eventually transcended both state and section, but he wa.s always a type of the “down-Easter” in the eyes of his countrymen and his political prospects sometimes suffered as a result.

Except for George Cleve, none of Reed’s ancestors seems to have made a name in history. They were the inconspicuous hard¬ working people who, as Reed himself always contended, really shape the course of events regardless of “ostentatious actors here and there, who stride the stage with panoply or with clang¬ ing arms.” They were of the tough fiber, physical and moral, which could alone have laid the foundations of new common¬ wealths and wrested a precarious living from the ocean or from the unfriendly soil of the north Atlantic seaboard.

“My father,” he once told a newspaper interviewer, “my grandfather, as well as all my great grandfathers back two hun¬ dred years, have one and all been fishermen and sailors and seagoers and comers of various sorts. I never heard of any of them being rich either. My father was a fisherman. At one time he was captain of a little coaster. When the steamboat drove out the coasters he was mate on an ocean-going boat, and made deep-water voyages to all parts of the map.” 1

When he gave up the sea Thomas Brackett Reed, Sr., became watchman in a sugar warehouse near the Portland waterfront. He was not in any sense a conspicuous figure in the community, but he owned his own home, was apparently devoted to his family, and made considerable sacrifices to assist his soji in ob¬ taining an education. The testimony of friends and neighbors is to the effect that his wife was of a decidedly superior type and that Thomas Brackett Reed, Jr., derived from her not only his physical characteristics but his acute mentality, his shrewd¬ ness, his philosophical viewpoint and his sarcastic tongue. Her photograph taken in advanced years shows her to have been a strikingly handsome woman, with intelligence and force of character apparent in every feature.2 New England neighbors in a small town — and Portland was still such in Reed’s youth, having a population of but 20,000 in 1850 — may not have known much about scientific principles of heredity, but their judgments are likely to be trustworthy in such a matter.

Reed’s boyhood, judging by the scanty information available, seems to have been much the same as that of countless other young Americans of similar condition. If he escaped the squalor and hardships on the frontier, such as Abraham Lincoln or Andrew Jackson encountered, he had, on the other hand, no unusual advantages. Certainly the family possessed no luxuries.

1 Washington Post, September 6, 1895.

2 S. W. McCall, Life of Thomas Brackett Reed, 4.

He was brought up in an atmosphere of thrift, self-denial, and hard work, but his inborn intellectual capacity and educational opportunities were sufficient to offset the narrowing influences which such environment frequently produces.

Years later when he had become famous, old friends and neighbors recalled Tom Reed the boy in various phases. One remembered “a tow-headed little fellow with fat cheeks and eyes as round as buttons” appearing at school for the first time as a visitor in the custody of two little girls of the neighborhood. Another recalled him when a little older climbing the wall of the Brackett Street school yard and taking a tumble which necessitated the doctor’s attention.

Judge Henry Carter, who presided at the municipal court in Portland on the occasion of Neal Dow’s well known arraignment for alleged violation of the liquor laws in 1855, remembered him as “a tall, gawky, round-faced, florid-complexioned boy” who “shuffled up” after adjournment of court and spoke to him “in a peculiar drawling voice,” expressing admiration of the magistrate’s statement rendered on discharging the defendant. Reed was at this time, as we know from his own recollections, becoming more and more interested in public affairs, and the popular interest in the case, in which Henry Clifford, afterward a member of the United States Supreme Court, and William Pitt Fessenden were opposing counsel, may well have drawn him to the court room.1

All accounts of Reed’s boyhood agree that he read inces¬ santly, devouring popular story papers, history, the English classics — anything he could get his hands on. As the birthplace of Longfellow, N. P. Willis, James and Erastus Brooks, and

1 Interesting items regarding Reed’s boyhood may be found in the Washing¬ ton Evening Star, December 2, 1889; New York Tribune, June 23, 1907; “When We Were Playmates Together,” by G. H. Field, Lewiston Journal, July 27, August 1, 1901 ; McCall, Reed, 7-12.

John Neal, Portland had many literary associations. He at¬ tended the public schools and eventually entered the Boys’ High School. In an address delivered at the unveiling of the Reed memorial at Portland, August 31, 1910, his distinguished friend and classmate Joseph W. Symonds, former member of the Maine Supreme Court, declared that it was in this school that Reed first realized his own possibilities and “half-awoke from his early dreaming and from a sense of loneliness that I think attended his boyhood.” “To the last of his life,” continued Judge Symonds, “he was accustomed to speak in a hushed and intense way of what he owed to his severe teacher there, Moses Lyford.” Judge Symonds’s testimony is valuable, for, as he said, he was able to speak of Reed from the intimacies of early childhood. “We were boys together, always friends, classmates in school, classmates in college, young lawyers with adjoining offices in the old, happy, careless, briefless days when the ex¬ pense of repairing the office-chairs which broke down under him, or which betrayed signs of infirmity after he was gone, was a consideration not to be regarded by either of us with entire indifference.”

While still in school Reed joined the State Street Congrega¬ tional Church and members of that society afterwards remem¬ bered that he passed through a period of considerable devotional enthusiasm. His religious promise apparently induced the women of the church to raise money to assist the boy through college with a view to his entering the ministry. There are various versions of the story, but that given by the Rev. Francis E. Clark, the founder of the Christian Endeavor movement, who was long an intimate friend and neighbor of Reed, and with whom he talked frankly on religious topics, is probably correct. The money was raised and accepted ; Reed subsequently changed his religious views j he requested his dismissal from the church, and after graduation repaid the donors whatever had been received.1 Whatever the details of the story, the interest of the church is evidence that he had made an impression as a promis¬ ing youth deserving a college education.

Reed’s course in the Portland High School led directly toward admission to Bowdoin College at Brunswick, twenty-five miles away. The entrance requirements as laid down in the college catalogue of 1856 show that the “strictness of discipline” under Lyford, to which Symonds and Reed alike paid tribute, must have stood the boys in good stead on the day of examina¬ tion. “Candidates for admission will be required to write Latin grammatically, and to be well versed in Geography, Arithmetic, six sections of Smyth’s Algebra, Cicero’s Select Orations, the Bucolics, two Georgies, and nine books of the Aeneid of Vergil, Sallust, Xenophon’s Anabasis, five books, Homer’s Iliad, two books, together with Latin and Greek Grammar and Prosody. They must produce certificates of their good moral character.”

Reed, one of the youngest freshmen in a class of fifty-eight members, entered college on August 28, 1856. Bowdoin College at that time had an enrollment of less than two hundred, drawn largely from within the boundaries of the State. Prosperous mercantile and professional families in Portland and other towns were represented, but a greater proportion of the students came from the farms and villages. Few had more than enough money for the very modest expenses of that day — two hundred dollars a year was sufficient — and the great majority were obliged to earn part of their own expenses. As at most New England colleges, the long winter vacation enabled students to teach school in the country districts, that experience itself, as many have testified, having no small educational value.

A college education was still an exceptional privilege which placed a man somewhat apart from his neighbors and imposed a corresponding obligation. Entire neighborhoods watched the

1 “Thomas B. Reed as a Neighbor,” The Independent, January 8, 1903.

boys who had gone out from their midst, boasted of their ability when they succeeded, or found explanation in the delinquencies of parents, the evils of environment, or in natural shiftlessness and depravity when they failed. That the graduating classes of Bowdoin College, year after year, throughout its first seventy-five years contributed an unusual number of distinguished men to American life may be attributed to the fine New England stock from which they came, to the special opportunities avail¬ able to the college-trained man in a busy land which, in general, was still in the pioneer stage, and to the intrinsic merit of the training which it offered. It had been only some thirty years since Longfellow, Hawthorne, John S. C. Abbott, William Pitt Fessenden, and Franklin Pierce had all been at the college to¬ gether.