Civil War echoes: character sketches and state secrets

Front matter

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Preface

The following somewhat hastily written pages of disconnected, personal and public historical reminiscences are the result of urgent requests of friends of both sexes to preserve for public use and information some interesting facts coming under my own observation of what may, in a sense, be termed unpublished history of the Civil-war Days of the Republic.

The task, more and more agreeable as it progressed, was done during the silent leisure hours of the night, after professional work had been finished, several years ago ; the manuscript was laid away in the meantime awaiting a favorable opportunity for publication, which it is believed has now arrived. No apology is offered for its appearance.

Any literary work that adds a spark of truth to the gloriously illuminated era of those "days that tried mens' souls," or that may recall the minds of the present generation to the great patriotic actors therein, whether in Legislative Hall, Cabinet Council, Supreme Court, or Field of Battle, can but stimulate renewed love of our regenerated and disenthralled Nation and of the everlasting principles of universal human brotherhood upon which it is founded: such is the primary object of this book.

The Author can not omit to call attention to the remarkable work of the Illustrator, the late V. Floyd Campbell, of Philadelphia, Pa., copied from authentic photographs and engravings several years before his demise, when he was in his early twenties — one of the most gifted pen and ink sketchers the world has ever produced. He was a beloved friend of

The Author.

Washington, D. C.

A.D. 1907.

Extracts from Letters of Commendation

Hon. Thomas W. Palmer, former United States Senator, United States Minister to Spain, and President of the World's Fair Commission (Chicago, A. D. 1892), writes:

"The parts which I have heard are highly entertaining, and appear to me a valuable contribution to the history of the times of which they treat, in supplying what has hitherto been unwritten in most histories — The personal characteristics of the actors and

REMINISCENCES WHICH REVEAL CHARACTER MORE THAN PUBLIC ACTS

OR UTTERANCES. The book should command a ready sale."

Hon. E. W. Meddaugh, General Counsel of the Grand Trunk Railway Company, writes:

"Of his above-entitled book, I can not speak in too high terms. It is remarkable in the extensive scope of its character sketches — the most delightful of all reading. Over one hundred personages, the most historical and renowned of the period, are presented — from Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis to 'Beau' Hickman and 'Wild Bill' (Hickox), each of whom Mr. Howard personally met. One chapter is wholly devoted to a brief biography of the author's very distinguished father, the author of the Thirteenth Amendment of the U. S. Constitution. Historical facts never before in print, rare and original poems, fun and pathos, dramatic scenes and incidents — abound throughout the book, which is equally instructive and entertaining.

"Washington official society, during the period, is depicted with fidelity — some of its noted beauties being described, as well as notable functions, levees and receptions.

"The work will be of great value and interest to the student of our country's history, to the veteran soldiers, and to all lovers of wholesome^ chaste literature, charmingly written. It will be the book of the day, and will have large sales."

United States Senator R. A. Alger, former Governor of Michigan, Commander Grand Army of the Republic, Secretary of War, writes:

"I shall look forward to your work with a good deal of interest, and will be glad to see it given a wide circulation when it comes before the public."

ILLUSTRATIONS

THE AUTHOR Frontispiece

Page

WASHINGTON, aged 54; Mother, and Wife 2

LINCOLN and Stepmother ; Home of Birth, etc 3

GRANT, as "General," retired; His Mother 9

SHERMAN, General William Tecumseh, U. S. Army. 25

SHERIDAN, General Phillip H., U. S. Army 35

STANTON, Edwin M., Secretary of War 41

SEWARD, William H., Secretary of State 51

SUMNER, Charles, U. S. Senator of Massachusetts. . 55

WADE, Benjamin F., U. S. Senator of Ohio 61

LINCOLN and BOOTH 69

FESSENDEN, William P., U. S. Senator of Maine ;

seq.. Secretary of U. S. Treasury 75

TRUMBULL, Lyman, U. S. Senator of Illinois 81

WILSON, Henry, U. S. Senator of Massachusetts,

seq., Vice-president 87

EDMUNDS, George F., U. S. Senator of Vermont. . 93 MORTON, Oliver P., U. S. Senator of Indiana and

ex-Governor 99

CONKLING, Roscoe, U. S. Senator of New York. . . 105 JOHNSON, Reverdy, U. S. Senator of Maryland;

seq., U. S. Minister to Great Britain 114

NYE, James W., U. S. Senator of Nevada 117

CHANDLER, Zachariah, U. S. Senator of Michigan;

seq.. Secretary of Interior 123

SHERMAN, John, U. S. Senator of Ohio ; seq.. Secretary of Treasury ; Secretary of State 129

HARLAN, James, U. S. Senator of Iowa ; seq.. Secretary of Interior 135

HOWE, Timothy O., U. S. Senator of Wisconsin; seq.,

Postmaster General 141

DOOLITTLE, James R., U. S. Senator of Wisconsin. 147 HENDRICKS, Thomas A., U. S. Senator of Indiana ;

seq., Vice-president 155

XV

Illustrations

Page BUCKALEW, Charles R., U. .S. Senator of Pennsylvania i6i

BUTLER, Benjamin F., M. C, and Major General

U. S. Vols. ; Governor of Massachusetts 167

EVARTS, William M., U. S. Senator, et seq., Secretary of State 171

LOGAN, John A., M. C., Major General U. S. V.; U. S. Senator of Illinois ; Candidate for Vice-president; Commander, Grand Army of Republic... 177 BOUTWELL, George S., M. C. of Massachusetts, et

seq., U. S. Senator; Secretary of the Treasury. . . 185

STEVENS, Thaddeus, M. C. of Pennsylvania 189

CAMERON, Simon, U. S. Senator of Pennsylvania. . . 195 BINGHAM, John A., M. C. of Ohio ; seq., U. S. Minister to Japan 201

BANKS, Nathaniel P., M. C. of Mass. ; Speaker U. S.

Ho. Reps, and Major General U. S. V 207

SCHENCK, Robert C, M. C. ; Major General

U. S. V. ; U. S. Minister to Great Britain 213

COLFAX, Schuyler, Speaker, et seq., Vice-president. . 219 BLAINE, James G., Speaker Ho. of Reps. ; seq., U. S.

Senator of Maine ; Candidate for President 223

SPRAGUE, William, U. S. Senator of Rhode Island. . 225 YATES, Richard, U. S. Senator of Illinois ; Governor.. 232 CARPENTER, Matt. H, U. S. Senator of Wisconsin. 238 MORGAN, U. S. Senator of New York; Governor. . . 244 HANCOCK, Maj. Gen. Winfield Scott, U. S. Army. . 250

HICKOX, "Wild Bill," U. S. Scout 256

WOOD, Fernando, M. C. of New York; Mayor 266

HOWARD, Jacob M., U. S. Senator of Michigan, ex- M. C. and Attorney General ; Author First Platform Republican Party and 13th Amendment U. S.

Constitution 269, 279

CUSTER, Maj. Gen. George A , U. S. Army 300

xvi

CONTE NTS

CHAPTER ONE Historical Senators — Descriptive Physical and Psychical

Analyses

Charles Sumner — Benjamin F. Wade — Vice-president Hannibal Hamlin — William Pitt Fessenden — Lyman Trumbull — Henry Wilson — George F. Edmunds — Oliver P. Morton — Roscoe Conkling's Maiden Speech in Senate — James W. Nye's Eloquence — Zachariah Chandler — John Sherman — William McDougall's Wit — James W. Grimes — ^James Harlan — James R. Doolittle — Timothy O. Howe — Reverdy Johnson — Thomas A. Hendricks — Willard Saulsbury — Richard Yates — Edwin D. Morgan — Alexander Ramsey — Morton S. Wilkinson's Dilemma at Inauguration Ball with Mrs. Justice M. — Matthew H. Carpenter — Charles D. Drake — John B. Henderson, etc., etc., etc.

Chapter Two

Abraham Lincoln's Assassination, and Vice-president Andrew Johnson's Complicity Therein

Author's First Call upon Lincoln — Reception at White House — Inauguration in 1865 — Lincoln's Appearance — The Assassination — Was Andrew Johnson an Accessory Before the Fact? — New Evidence — Old Senate Doorkeeper — Governor Saloman's Thrilling Account — Wilkes Booth's Card Left for Johnson — Secretary Stanton's Significant Shrug — "The Fighting Illinois Parson ;" His Tete-a-tete with Madame Surratt — Did the Jesuit Order Have to Do with the Conspiracy? — Opinion of Provost Marshal General H. H. Wells — Was Mrs. Surratt's Hanging Justifiable?

xii Contents

Chapter Three

Washington Society — Notable Receptions, Levees, and Other Social Functions

Author's Early Diffidence— Mrs. R.'s Reception— Mrs. B.'s Ditto— Senator C.'s Ditto— Judge W.'s Ditto— General Grant's Ditto— Noted Beauties Described— Colonel John W. Forney's Stag Party— Secretary Seward— Senator Simon Cameron— Thaddeus Stevens— Fernando C. Wood —Henry Winter Davis — General N. P. Banks— General R. C. Schenck ("Poker Bob")— Speaker Schuyler Coif ax- Supreme Court Justices— Chase, Miller, Davis, Clifford; Mr. Philip's Select Stag Parties— Major R.'s Ditto— English Boatswain's Song— The Negro "Million-'o-airs" Club : Their Funny Songs— Poems : "Always," "The Perfect One," "The Star-Spangled Banner," etc.

Chapter Four

Greatest Criminal Trial in History— Impeachment of President Andrew Johnson

Preliminary Proceedings— State Secrets— Chief Justice Chase Refuses to Preside Over the Senate—Dramatic Scene —Opening Address by General B. F. Butler— Examination of Witnesses— Defense Outlined by Benjamin R. Curtis— Wm. M. Evarts and Benj. F. Butler Contrasted— John A. Logan's Address, in Part— George S. Boutwell's, Ditto- Thomas R. Nelson's, Ditto— William S. Groesbeck's, Ditto— Thaddeus Stevens', Ditto— Attorney General Stansberry's, Ditto — John A. Bingham's Closing Peroration, and Scenes in the Galleries— The Author's Prediction Fulfilled— Why the Verdict Was Acquittal, by One Vote.

Contents xiii

Chapter Five

General Meade's Fear of Removal After Battle of Gettysburg — General Sickles' Confirmation by the Senate as Major General; How It Was Done — Fun at General Kilpatrick's Headquarters — Review of the Second Army Corps — James G. Blaine's Indiscreet Midnight Call — Secretary Edwin M. Stanton's Violent Talk about French Occupation of Mexico ; His Characteristics — A Trip Across the Plains with General Hancock ; His Title as "The Superb," Justly Earned — Grand Buffalo Hunt — Mrs. General Custer — Humorous Irish Surgeon ; His Songs : "Mary-Eye Jane," "Ye'll Come Back Agin," etc.— "Wild Bill," Greatest of U. S. Scouts — A Very Pathetic and Picturesque Scene on the Plains — Notable Personages at White Sulphur Springs, Va. — The Classic Beauty of Miss Margaret Beck, of Kentucky — An Old-time U. S. Senator of South Carolina ; His Views — Jefferson Davis ; How the Author Met Him — "Beau" Hickman — Evening with President Grant, at the White House.

Chapter Six

The Author's Father: Hon. Jacob M. Howard, LL. D., United States Senator from Michigan — 1862-18/1

Member of Twenty-seventh U. S. Congress — Attorney General of Michigan Three Successive Terms (1854-60) — Author of First State Platform of the Republican Party, and Its Godfather — U. S. Senator from Michigan Two Terms ('62-71) — Author of the Thirteenth Amendment of U. S. Constitution Abolishing Chattel Slavery by Law, etc.

CHAPTER SEVEN Letters from General Custer to Senator Howard GEORGE WASHINGTON, MOTHER, AND WIFE

ABRAHAM LINCOLN, STEPMOTHER, ETC

CHAPTER ONE Historical Senators — Descriptive Physical and Psychical

Analyses — Most Important Period of Our

Nation's Existence^ A. D. 1862-71

Sumner's appearance, mannerisms, etc. — wade's forceful ELOQUENCE AND GESTURES — CONKLING's MAIDEN

speech in senate, its striking EFFECT ON SUMNER

NYE's MASTERLY ORATORY MCDOUGAl's WIT — WILSOn's

diffidence — carpenter's CLEAR-CUT LOGIC, ETC.

Y SON, always do your full duty!" "Never trifle with a young girl's affections, my boy !" — were the parting words received from my respective parents, as on the seventh day of September — a day of the month dear to memory— in the year 1863, I left my parental home to go to Williamstown, Mass., to pa^ examination for admission to the century-old Williams College, located in that place, having been prepared under the care of excellent private tutors with the understanding that I was to enter the sophomore class, but I was not at the time particularly desirous of entering college, as the martial spirit had a strong hold upon my mind. However, my father thought that his oldest son was sufficient for his quota, and so pacified me somewhat with his permission to also enlist in the Union army in case of my inability to gain admission to college. Fate reserved me for fields of peace, as all the several examinations were successful, and I entered as a full-fledged sophomore, in one of the staidest and most conservative educational institutions in the United States.

At the end of the fall term, by my father's invitation, I proceeded to Washington, D. C, there to act as his private secretary and clerk of the Senate Committee on Pacific Railroads, of which he had recently been selected as chairman ; the room of said committee being on the gallery floor of the Senate, and of large dimensions, as that committee was at the time the greatest in point of numbers and one of the most important in the character of its work and its membership. It included as its members John Sherman, of Ohio, subsequently Secretary of the Treasury and Secretary of State; Henry Wilson, of Massachusetts, afterward Vice-president ; ex-Governor Edwin D. Morgan, of New York ; John Conness, of California ; James Harlan, of Iowa, afterward President Lincoln's Secretary of the Interior ; Reverdy Johnson, of Maryland, afterward U. S. Minister to Great Britain ; Jacob Collamer, of Vermont, chairman of the Judiciary Committee of the Senate ; Alexander Ramsey, of Minnesota, afterward Secretary of War ; B. Gratz Brown, of Missouri, afterward candidate for Vice-president; Lyman Trumbull, of Illinois, afterward chairman of the Judiciary Committee, and Jacob M. Howard, of Michigan, Chairman.

It was in this period, practically, the legislative work on Pacific Railroads began in Congress. Hence it will be readily understood how responsible was the work done.

My father had been a member of the Senate upward of a year at the time of my first arrival in Washington. He was a man in the prime of life, of great gravity and dignity, but possessed also of a very kind and tender heart and a certain grim humor which was exceedingly catching when he unbent himself. I presented myself to his gaze, arrayed in very fashionable attire of New York, where I had stopped on my journey — "peg-top" trousers, pointed shoes, padded shoulders, steel watch chain, heavy mahogany, college cane, and silk tile — my first, and which I sadly indented on my initial trip in a Broadway "bus," and a struggling "baseball" mustache ! I felt of decided importance ; for why shouldn't I ? Wasn't I a "wise fool," Eo<po<; Mo(;o<: What youth of that age can't give his father "pointers," not only on fashions and social etiquette, but even on philosophical and governmental questions as well? How much importance youth attaches to the surface of things, and with what lofty disdain it looks down upon the sobriety and humility of solid worth ! I was truly possessed of an immoderate degree of self-satisfaction.

My father shortly took me upon the floor of the Senate to make me acquainted with some of his friends. The first one to whom he presented me was Senator Charles Sumner, saying I was "a young man with a log chain and policeman's club," at which the great senator from Massachusetts smiled in a kindly way as soon as he saw my father had wounded my pride.

Mr. Sumner arose from his seat quickly, extending his hand in a most gracious and courtly way, and while he held my hand in his own, expressed his pleasure to meet a son of a man for whom he had the highest respect. There was nothing stiff or forced or stilted in his words or manner. It was the unaffected and cordial greeting of a perfect gentleman. His personal appearance and attire are wellremembered. For a man of his dignity and great prominence and scholarship, he was a little overdressed ; but I was not then entirely free from provincialism, and looked upon much attention to dress as incompatible almost with scholastic or senatorial greatness ; hence I was at first a little disappointed in the great man's appearance. However, it was but a few more seconds before he completely fascinated me. His dignity and majestic face, and deep, sonorous, musical voice captivated me. A sense of profound admiration came over me as I gaze3 up into his kindly sparkling eyes and studied his remarkably large features, and strong Jeffersonian face, crowned with a great mass of iron-gray hair, parted on the right side of his head where there was a sort of a cow-lick that made the forelock fall down constantly over his wide and rather full forehead. I was, indeed, confronting a great presence — a fearless exemplar of generations of one of the noblest stocks that have ever lived on this earth — the Puritans — hereditary haters of all kinds of oppression. Sumner was a bachelor at this time. In height, six feet three inches ; weight, in the neighborhood of two hundred pounds ; chest, about forty inches ; head, twenty-three inches — a magnificent, suave, cultured, polished gentleman with a decided scholarly air. A judge of human nature could readily have detected an intense egotism and o'er-weening vanity. This was shown partly in the restlessness of his eyes in his efforts to observe thoroughly all the surroundings while engaged in conversation, the almost constant attentions, with his disengaged hands, to his cravat, his collar, his forelock, the twirling of eye-glasses and watch-fob, gazing quickly up into the galleries and brushing, with hand, the dust specks or dandruff off his coat and vest.

After this, my first, interview with Senator Sumner, it was my custom to spend considerable portion of the day during open sessions in the Senate Chamber, and to study the peculiarities, idiosyncrasies, and habits of the several senators until they became firmly fixed in my memory. My estimate as to Sumner was soon confirmed. He was not what would be called a sociable man ; rather reserved, politely cold, ceremonial, but also an intense lover of liberty. It was the latter feature of his nature which was the "motif" of his whole life, and which, undoubtedly, was the cause of his celibacy up to his fifty-fourth year — his dislike of any kind of restraint or subjection.

ULYSSES S. GRANT AND MOTHER

At the latter period, he confidentially consulted my father as to the advisability of his marrying the lady to whom he shortly afterward was united in wedlock, and upon receiving a friendly admonition that he was too old and had lived too long a bachelor, manifested great impatience and dissatisfaction at the suggestion, and expressed in the most eulogistic terms his admiration for the lady, saying he could not live without her. It is well-known he married the lady, a widow, lived unhappily, and after a brief life as a benedict, was divorced from his quasi-idol, and returned to his books and solitary life. Various domestic reasons were assigned by friend and foe, which need not be given publicity.

Mr. Sumner's social relations were probably as intimate with my father as with any of his friends in the Senate. I was informed on one occasion by a gentleman who had just left his presence, that he pronounced the latter to be the "ablest constitutional lawyer in the Senate" at that time. His respect for my father's legal and scholarly acquirements was such that he almost habitually consulted him as to the character and quality of his most important speeches before their delivery, but owing to his predominating trait of selfesteem he took the criticisms with poor grace. On being kindly admonished that his speeches were too ornate, too full of classical quotations and patent attempts to display his scholarship, and thus weaken, by comparison, his own immediate following sentences, he frankly confessed he could not help it, that he did take a special delight in displaying his own familiarity with writings of the great of olden days. So that in his speeches is exhibited the same trait of excessive vanity which' I early discovered characterized his every movement of head, hand, and eye. It was this weakness that primarily caused his downfall in the Senate. His colleague, Henry Wilson, once said, in my presence, that lO

"Sumner thought any thing that did not originate in his own brain or the Almighty's, was not worthy of consideration." Owing to his increasing hauteur of bearing and disappointment in his connubial relations as well as the check received to his political ambition in not receiving the appointment as Grant's first Secretary of State, a position to which he felt he was entitled in consideration of his party services and as chairman of the Committee on Foreign Relations — and his consequent and subsequent bitter antagonism to Grant's intense desire to acquire the island of San Domingo, his old friends began to cool toward him. He even avoided his ordinary social intercourse with my father because, as chairman of the Committee of Investigation in the matter, he had reported favorably as to the advisability of securing that valuable naval coaling station.

Sumner was shortly thereafter deposed from the chairmanship of the Committee on Foreign Relations, which he had so long honorably and ably filled. From that day he seemed to lose faith in his destiny, and lived largely in the past until he sank peacefully to rest — a great, good, but vain statesman.

There is a remarkable document on file at the War Department, the existence of which was unknown until a short time ago, when it was accidentally discovered. It is a letter written by Charles Pinckney Sumner to the Hon. Philip Barbour, of Virginia, Secretary of War under John Ouincy Adams, asking for the appointment of his eldest son, Charles Sumner, to the Military Academy at West Point. The application was ignored. Charles Sumner went to Harvard University instead, and died a Senator of the United States and not a disgruntled major of infantry. The letter is written on a paper of fine texture, yellow with age. The penmanship is fine and neat, and very much resembles the manuscript of the Senator forty years after.

The letter is as follows :

"Boston, 22 November, 1825.

"Sir: My eldest son, Charles Sumner, is desirous of being admitted as a member of the Military Academy at West Point. He will be fifteen years old in January next. He is of good constitution & in good health, altho unusually studious. He is well acquainted with Latin and Greek, is somewhat acquainted with Arithmetic & Algebra & French. He is exceedingly well acquainted with history and Geography, both ancient and modern. He knows the scenes of many of the distinguished battles of ancient and modern times, & the characters of the Heroes who figured in them. He has a strong sense of patriotic pride; and a devotion to the welfare and glory of his country. He is now at the Latin School in Boston, & in August next will be qualified to enter the university at Cambridge.

"He prefers the academy at West Point. He is the oldest grandson of the deceased Maj. Job Sumner, who served with reputation in the army of the revolution, whose only child I am.

"It is not proper for me to devote him like Hannibal to a military life, and at the present age I will not attempt it ; but I have the most respectful opinion of the education that is generally bestowed upon the Selected Sons of the Republic whether a young man is destined to a military or a civil life.

"I have not merit of my own. If my boy's character and qualifications give him any claim to Your good-will, I hope he will receive it. I can produce but few certificates in his favor. I venture to recommend him myself, as it may possibly be that no other recommendation is necessary. Mr. Webster and Judge Strong, if questioned, can say whether or not I would recommend anybody, son or no son, whom I did not believe to be a person of merit. The President Himself may possible not be an utter stranger to my name.

"I form no unreasonable expectation, & am not liable to any painful disappointment, whatever may be the result of this application.

"I am, sir, your sincerely respected humble servant.

"CHARLES PINCKNEY SUMNER, "To the Honourable Philip Barbour, Secretary of War."

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My father, also, on the occasion first referred to, presented me to a number of other distinguished senators who figured largely in shaping, during the most vital period of our national existence, the destinies of the Republic. Let me describe those whom memory recalls, after a lapse of a generation or more, as they impressed the plastic mind of an observant northern blooded youth in his teens, who was "all eyes and ears." Being a private secretary and clerk of a committee, I had the right of entrance and sojourn upon the floor of the Senate Chamber, a privilege which I utilized to the fullest extent, listening to debates, magnificent orations, reports, and rulings of the Vice-president or President pro tempore. I usually occupied a seat on a sofa, in a quiet corner on the Republican side of the chamber, unobserved, but voraciously absorbing the great and varied historic scenes. While not especially listening to the legislative proceedings I was engaged in carefully noting and studying each senator of national fame, and so deeply impressed, owing to the high physical tension, caused by the existing "War of the Rebellion," which permeated the very air of the capitol, that it is not to be wondered at I have little difficulty in recalling details, that seem as fresh as though they occurred yesterday. I will content myself with giving delineations of these distinguished senators as they voluntarily arise in my memory, not from their respective merits or relative prominence. I see them one by one as they pass along through the aisles or corridors, or sit at their desks or stand in their places — these mighty, living civic factors who did their part in strengthening the Right Arm of the Republic to strike down the foe that sought its life — they were firm believers in the truth of William Cullen Bryant's ode to

FREEDOM

O FREEDOM ! thou art not, as poets dream,

A fair young girl, with light and delicate limbs.

And wavy tresses gushing from the cap

With which the Roman master crowned his slave

When he took off the gyves. A bearded man.

Armed to the teeth, art thou ; one mailed hand

Grasps the broad shield, and one the sword ; thy brow,

Glorious in beauty though it be, is scarred

With tokens of old wars ; thy massive limbs

Are strong with struggling. Power at thee has launched

His bolts, and with his lightnings smitten thee ;

They could not quench the life thou hast from Heaven;

Merciless Power has dug thy dungeon deep.

And his swart armorers, by a thousand fires.

Have forged thy chain ; yet, while he deems thee bound.

The links are shivered, and the prison-walls

Fall outward ; terribly thou springest forth.

As leaps the flame above a burning pile.

And shoutest to the nations, who return

Thy shoutings, while the pale Oppressor flies.

Here comes sturdy, grim-visaged, plainly-attired, swallow-tail coated, colorless face, Benjamin F. Wade, of Ohio; a man of intense earnestness, and stamped all over with honesty and fearlessness — a splendid specimen of the American nobleman — Nature's best. There is no air of pomposity or hauteur or vanity about this great man. He has a plain, off-hand, homely manner of speech and action; a natural-born orator, not of polished periods, but of a mighty power and force, who in his terrific outbursts of passionate invective and irony, with his deep and powerful voice as it quivered in all the varied octaves of eloquence, invariably held the close and undivided attention of the Senate. He was simple, frank, unpretentious, and given to much swearing. As he once said in conversation : "Damn it, I can't be emphatic without swearing; I don't mean any disrespect to the Deity or to my hearers." Wade was not a man of great scholarship or learning, but he was full of love of country, of a fund of common sense, of inflexible will, invincible courage and perseverence. He was utterly without fear, and an intense hater of hypocrisy, sham, chicanery, and pretense ; a man of deep-seated and immovable convictions of right and duty. In his speeches he was exceedingly strong and effective. As he warmed up to his theme his hair would become ruffled and stand up like bristles ; he would unbutton his vest, shove up his coatsleeves, tear off his cravat, and, "yank" off his collar, and in his most earnest moments, would rise on his toes, holding aloft his hands at arms length, and as he brought the latter down, he would jump on to his heels — this was his usual and most favorite mode of gesture. It was fully as effective in its way, as the cold, classical, clean-cut phrases of the scholars of the Senate. It roused the fervor and spirit of patriotism, and his words became him as chairman of the Committee on the Conduct of the War, a position for which he was peculiarly well adapted, and in which he rendered invaluable and lasting service to his country ; a glorious patriot, a fearless fighter, a great statesman, and an honest man.

Wade's height was 5 feet 8^ inches ; weight, 185 pounds ; chest, 415^ inches; head, 23 inches; born October 27, 1800.

My attention is next attracted to Hannibal Hamlin, Vice-president of the United States, formerly a senator from Maine. He bore a somewhat remarkable facial resemblance to the picture and description of Daniel Webster. He presided over the Senate. When I first saw him he was past the meridian of life, of about five feet ten inches in height, dark, swarthy, olive complexion, deep-set eyes, broad and full forehead, stooping shoulders, and invariably attired in a somewhat rusty suit of broadcloth, swallow-tail coat, low vest, and trousers, all black, hands in side pockets of the latter almost constantly. One of his peculiarities was seldom, if ever, to wear an overcoat or surtout; no matter how bitterly cold the weather, this old patriot might be seen walking with brisk, elastic step, coat and vest wide open, silk tile down low over his forehead, glancing rapidly to the right and left as he passed over the miserable brick sidewalks of Pennsylvania Avenue. As a presiding officer over the most august legislative body in the world, he reflected great credit upon himself, but was wanting in the robust dignity of Solomon Foots, of Vermont, who was President pro tempore, as well as in his ready knowledge of parliamentary law. As a consequence he was frequently absent from the chair, which was then filled by Footfc, probably one of the best presiding officers the Senate has ever had,