of the Events which led to the Political Revolution of 1860,' has completed, for his country and himself, 'a monument more lasting than bronze, and loftier than the royal elevation of the Pyramids, which neither the wasting shower, nor the raging north wind, nor the flight of seasons, shall be able to demolish.' Mr. Blaine, too, has been brave enough to measure out full and exact justice to his countrymen. In the work of this noble author you will find earnestness, sagacity, and manful worth, but no sectional rancor or bitterness. He has done justice to virtue, talent, courage, and patriotism, regardless of sectional lines. He has told the truth with studied candor and simplicity, and nowhere upon the pages of this fair history appear the footprints of the scavengers of the Civil War, with their long accumulated stores of stale and loathsome calumnies; but he has left them to moulder in oblivion upon 'Carrion Heath.' On every page of the two volumes of his work—which, with exemplary modesty, the great author has presented to his country, under the simple title of 'Twenty Years of Congress'—you will find a substantial, systematic statement of events and facts of tragic interest fully unfolded, in which none of History's secrets are left unspoken. When you have diligently perused this faithful narrative of simple truths by this gentleman, statesman, and scholar, you will have advanced in your special study as far as American history goes, and will be thoroughly prepared by many noble paths to reach the goal, at which I understand you aim, of rightly discerning the legal status of the civil rights of citizens of the United States of African descent.
"Considerable time," continued the Chief Justice, "must be expended before you are prepared for the discussion of this grave subject, and before we meet again many varying phases of the question may be presented for determination to the Supreme Court and the State courts. May I suggest the expediency of your forming or giving expression to no opinion until you have diligently, patiently, and zealously completed the great course I have assigned you? When your work is done, I beg you will stand upon no ceremony, but seek me at once. The attitude of the labor-caste and the public servants towards the Constitutional Amendments may incline the courts of the country
