Political Recollections: 1840 to 1872Julian, George Washington
History
Political Recollections: 1840 to 1872
Julian, George Washington
Republican Party (U.S. : 1854- ) -- History; United States -- Politics and government
of his country by his unswerving loyalty to freedom, and his great
labors and invaluable services as chairman of the Military Committee.
Howard ranked among the first lawyers and most faithful men in the
body, and no man had a clearer grasp of the issues of the war.
Henderson was a strong man, whose integrity and political independence
were afterward abundantly proved. Doolittle was a man of vigor,
and made a good record as a Republican, but he naturally belonged
to the other side of the Senate, and finally found his way to it,
through the quarrel with Johnson.
Garrett Davis was always an interesting figure. His volubility of
talk bordered on the miraculous; and whenever he began to swathe
the Senate in his interminable rhetoric it awakened the laughter
or the despair of everybody on the floor or in the galleries.
Bayard and Thurman were recognized as the strong men on their side
of the Senate in the Forty-first Congress. Buckalew was one of
the really sterling men of his party, but he was a modest man, and
only appreciated by those who knew him intimately. As a leading
Democrat, Hendricks stood well in the Senate. He was so cautious
and diplomatic in temper and so genial and conciliatory in his
manner that he glided smoothly through the rugged conflict of
opinions in which his side of the chamber was unavoidably involved.
B. Gratz Brown was known as an intense radical, but he made little
mark in this crisis. He wrote out elaborate and scholarly essays
which he read to the Senate, but they received slight attention
from members, and seemed to bear little fruit. Carpenter, Schurz
and Morton took their seats after the war, and were not long in
finding honorable recognition. Carpenter was as brilliant and
versatile in intellect as he was naturally eloquent in speech and
wayward in morals. Carl Schurz displayed ability in the famous
debate with Morton and Conkling on the sale of arms to the French,
and his political independence in 1872 gave him great prominence
as a Liberal Republican leader; but that virtue has been less
conspicuously illustrated in later years. Morton became famous
soon after he entered the Senate. The "logic of events" had
revolutionized the opinions so vigorously espoused by him only a
few months before, and his great speech on reconstruction, in which
he avowed and defended his change of base, brought him into great
prominence, and multiplied his friends in every section of the
country.
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