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just been elected President, and was surrounding himself with counsellors of whom some were little trained in civil affairs, and few were likely to oppose his will. Once before, under General Jackson, similar conditions in some respects prevailed, and in each case the standards of our government were lowered.
The Senate reflected the conditions of the country; of the men who lead the Republican party in its days of struggle—Sumner, Fessenden, Trumbull, Grimes and others—a few remained, but their service was drawing to its close. New leaders, Conkling, Carpenter, and men of like opinions and methods, dominated the counsels of the Senate. The seats which belonged to the Southern States were filled, but those who occupied them represented neither the South, for which they sat, nor the North, from which in most cases they came. They were the fruit of revolution, and represented truly their own fortunes. Of opposition to the Republicans, there was practically none. I well remember that when a vote was announced, 42 to 8, on some party question, Senator Nye turned to me and said, “A fair working majority.” The mental ability of the Senate, was great, but its moral strength was sensibly weakened. There had come into public life leaders “whose political horizon was bounded by the struggles of the Rebellion; whose whole political stock in trade consisted in the battle cries of the Civil War,” to quote from our guest of to-night. The result was an atmosphere peculiarly unfavorable to statesmanship and independence in politics, and peculiarly favorable to partisanship and corruption.
Yet never was a legislative body confronted with
