s between us. We afterwards served for many
years in the Senate together, but had no intercourse with each
other except formal recognition while I was president of the Senate.
I always regretted this, for I did not feel the slightest enmity
to General Hampton, and recognized the fact that while enjoying
the office he held as the result of the crimes of the Klan, yet he
and his colleague, M. C. Butler, were among the most conservative
and agreeable gentlemen in the Senate, and the offenses with which
I connected his name were committed by his constituents and not by
himself.

CHAPTER XLI.
MY LAST YEAR IN THE TREASURY DEPARTMENT.
Opening of the 1880 Campaign in Cincinnati--My First Speech Arraigned
as "Bitterly Partisan"--Letter from Garfield Regarding the Maine
Election--Ohio Thought to Be in Doubt--Many Requests for Speeches
--Republican Ticket Elected in Ohio and Indiana--A Strange Warning
from Detroit Threatening Garfield with Assassination--The Latter's
Reply--My Doubts About Remaining in the Treasury Department or
Making an Effort for the Senate--Letter to Dalzell--Last Annual
Report to Congress in December, 1880--Recommendations Regarding
Surplus Revenue, Compulsory Coinage of the Silver Dollar, the
Tariff, etc.--Bills Acted Upon by Congress.

During July and August I received many invitations to speak on
political topics, but declined all until about the 1st of September.
In anticipation of the election of Garfield, and his resignation
as Senator, I was, as early as July, tendered the support of several
members of the legislature who had voted for him for Senator, and
who wished to vote for me in case he resigned. I replied that I
would prefer the position of Senator to any other, that I resigned
my seat in the Senate to accept the office of Secretary of the
Treasury, and would be gratified by a return to my old position,
but only in case it came to me as the hearty choice of the general
assembly. During the month of August the two assistant secretaries,
who had been for a year confined to the department and upon whom
the duties of secretary had devolved during my recent absence, went
on their usual vacation, so that I was fully occupied during office
hours with the routine business of the department.

My first speech of the campaign was made on Monday, the 30th of
August, in Cincinnati. It was carefully prepared, and delivered
in substance as printed. My habit has been for many years, at the
beginnin