tiny and the presentation of
articles of impeachment, representing that I was terribly frightened
by the threatened exposure. So for some months I was amused reading
about my supposed terrible excitement in anticipation of a threatened
removal from office. But, as soon as the author of the objectionable
observations was ascertained, the ridiculous nature of the subsequent
proceedings became manifest. The Chairman of the Judiciary Committee,
Mr. Wilson, of Iowa, occupied a seat next to me at Mr. Ward's dinner,
and knew, of course, that, so far as I was concerned, the whole
story was without foundation. And so he said to his associates on the
Judiciary Comnfittee.

Near the close of the session--on June 18th, 1868--the committee were
discharged from the further consideration of the resolution, and
it was laid on the table--a proceeding which was equivalent to its
indefinite postponement.

The amusing mistake which gave rise to this episode in the lower house
of Congress would be unworthy of the notice I have taken of it,
except that it illustrates the virulent and vindictive spirit which
occasionally burst forth for some time after the close of the war, and
which, it is to be greatly regretted, is not yet wholly extinguished.

[1] Congressional Globe, 39th Congress, 2d Session, Part I.,
pp. 646-649.

When the bill reached the Senate it was referred to the
Judiciary Committee, and by them to a sub-committee of which
Mr. Stewart, Senator from Nevada, was chairman. He retained it
until late in the session, and upon his advice, the committee
then recommended its indefinite postponement. The bill was
thus disposed of.

[2] 6th Wallace, 50.

[3] 15 Stats. at Large, 44.

[4] "It fills us with shame that these reproaches can be uttered,
and cannot be repelled." The words are found in Ovid's
Metamorphoses, Book I., lines 758-9. In some editions the last
word is printed _refelli_.

THE MOULIN VEXATION.

Soon after my appointment to the Bench of the U.S. Supreme Court, I
had a somewhat remarkable experience with a Frenchman by the name of
Alfred Moulin. It seems that this man, sometime in the year 1854
had shipped several sacks of onions and potatoes on one of the mail
steamers, from San Francisco to Panama. During the voyage the ship's
store of fresh provisions ran out, and the captain appropriated the
vegetables, and out of this appropriation originated a long and bitt