ic career, and her
helpfulness to him. She was the model of a helpmate. She is in
every way a good woman. She has the very qualities that he lacked,
and I might illustrate by many instances her great aid to him in
his political purposes.

I had accepted an invitation of the merchants of Boston to attend
the annual banquet of the Mercantile Association on the 29th of
December, but was compelled to withdraw my acceptance, so that, as
president of the Senate, I could perform certain duties in respect
to Logan's funeral that I could not delegate to others, and which
were requested of me by the committee on arrangements, through a
notice sent me by Senator Cullom, the chairman, as follows, and
upon which I acted:

"The committee on arrangements at the funeral ceremonies of John
A. Logan, late a Senator of the United States from the State of
Illinois, respectfully request the Honorable John Sherman, a Senator
of the United States from the State of Ohio, to preside at the
funeral exercises on Friday, December 31, 1886."

In the Boston invitation it was intimated that some remarks on the
national banking system would be acceptable. In declining I wrote
a letter expressing my opinion of that system, which I said had
realized all the good that had ever been claimed for it by its
authors, that it had furnished the best paper money ever issued by
banking corporations, that the system was adopted only after the
fullest consideration and had won its way into public favor by slow
process, and that I regarded it as the best that had ever been
created by law. The remarkable success of this system, I said,
was not appreciated by those not familiar with the old state banks.
It had been adopted by many countries, especially in the far off
island of Japan.

The bill to regulate interstate commerce became a law on the 4th
of February, 1887. It had passed both Houses at the previous
session, but, the Senate having disagreed to amendments of the
House, the bill and amendments were sent to a committee of conference.
The report of this committee was fully debated. I had taken great
interest in this bill, but had not participated in the debate until
the 14th of January, when I supported the conference report, while
not agreeing to some of the amendments made. Senator Cullom is
entitled to the chief credit for its passage.

On the 22nd of February I laid before the Senate the following
communication, which was read:

"To the Sena