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XIII
LEGISLATIVE SESSION OF 1848--FUNERAL OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS

The chief incident of the Legislative session of 1848 was the funeral
of John Quincy Adams. Mr. Adams died in February, 1848. There were
then twenty-four States in the Union and the House of Representatives
selected one member from each State to accompany the remains of Mr.
Adams to Massachusetts. Of these members I recall Talmadge of New
York; Newell* of New Jersey; Kaufmann of Texas; Morse of Louisiana;
Wentworth of Illinois; Bingham of Michigan; and Holmes of South
Carolina. The Massachusetts Legislature appointed a committee of the
same number to receive the Congressional Committee. Of that committee
I was a member and George T. Bigelow was the chairman. Our first
thought was of a hotel and the entertainment of the Committee.

The feeling in regard to temperance was active and we foresaw that the
doings of the committee would be subject to criticism. Finally,
Bigelow suggested that we should go to the Tremont House and say to the
landlord that we wished him to provide suitable rooms and entertainment
for the Congressional Committee. This we did, and nothing was said
about wines. At the end we found that the bill was a large one, and
that the item of wines was a very important item. It was paid by the
Governor and Council, and as one member of the committee I was ignorant
of the amount. The reporters made vain attempts to ascertain the
facts. A portion of our committee met the Congressional Committee at
Springfield. Many additions had then been made to the twenty-four. At
Worcester, and perhaps at other places, speeches were made to the
Committee by the local authorities and speeches in answer were
delivered by members of the Committee. Mr. Holmes of South Carolina,
was one of the speakers. He was an enthusiastic man, and he was
endowed with a form of popular eloquence quite well adapted to the
occasion.

I was assigned to the charge of Mr. Wentworth of Illinois. His height
was such that he was already known as "Long John." We sat together in
the train for Quincy on the day of the funeral. He was a good natured
man, whose greatness was not altogether in the size of his body. His
talents were far above mediocrity, indeed, nature had endowed him with
powers of a high order, as I had the opportunity to learn when we were
associated in Congress.

Two banquets were given to the Committee, one by the State at the
Tremont House,