essentially necessary to the
war department as a cattle yard. When the war was over Congress
appropriated it for the use of his department. He took possession
of it about the middle of April, 1865, and, though the ground was
an unbroken soil of tenacious clay, he fertilized and pulverized
a part of it and planted a great variety of seeds for propagation,
and covered the remaining portions of it with grass and cereals.
His reports increased in interest and were in great demand. His
office work was done in inconvenient parts of the Patent Office,
and the necessity of better accommodations was constantly pressed
upon Members of Congress. I took an active interest in the subject,
and offered an amendment to the civil appropriation bill to
appropriate $100,000 for a suitable building for the department of
agriculture on the reservation mentioned. There was a disposition
in the Senate to ridicule Newton and his seeds, and Mr. Fessenden
opposed the appropriation as one for an object not within the
constitutional power of Congress. The amendment, however, was
adopted on the 28th day of February, 1867. Newton died on the 19th
of June of that year, but on the 22nd of August, John W. Stokes,
as acting commissioner, entered into a contract for the erection
of the building, and Horace Capron, as commissioner, completed the
work within the limits of his appropriation, a rare result in the
construction of a public building. The building is admirably
adapted for the purposes designed. The unsightly reservation has
been converted by Mr. Capron and his successors in office into one
of the most beautiful parks in Washington. The department of
agriculture is now represented in the cabinet, and in practical
usefulness to the country is equal to any of the departments.

CHAPTER XVIII.
THREE MONTHS IN EUROPE.
Short Session of Congress Convened March 4, 1867--I Become Chairman
of the Committee on Finance, Succeeding Senator Fessenden--Departure
for Europe--Winning a Wager from a Sea Captain--Congressman Kasson's
Pistol--Under Surveillance by English Officers--Impressions of John
Bright, Disraeli and Other Prominent Englishmen--Visit to France,
Belgium, Holland and Germany--An Audience with Bismarck--His Sympathy
with the Union Cause--Wonders of the Paris Exposition--Life in
Paris--Presented to the Emperor Napoleon III and the Empress Eugenie
--A Dinner at the Tuileries--My Return Home--International Money
Commission in Session