ound him among the
foremost of the leaders of the Senate. He had gone through
the great period of the Civil War, and the period before the
Civil War. He had stood by Lincoln in that time of trouble.
He had stood firm as a rock for the financial integrity of
the country. Afterward it was my good fortune to know a good
deal of his administration of the great Department of the
Interior. I have never known, or known of, a better administration
of any Department from the beginning of the Government, than
his of that great office, with its eight important bureaus.

"He brings to you to-night the news from Maine and the news
from Ohio. He can tell you what the Republicans are thinking
of and are doing all over the country, as they prepare themselves
for the great contest beginning this year, to end, as we hope
and believe, with a great Republican victory in 1880."

John James Ingalls was in many respects one of the brightest
intellects I ever knew. He was graduated at Williams in 1855.
One of the few things, I don't know but I might say the only
thing, for which he seemed to have any reverence was the character
of Mark Hopkins. He was a very conspicuous figure in the
debates in the Senate. He had an excellent English style,
always impressive, often on fit occasions rising to great
stateliness and beauty. He was for a good while President
pro tempore of the Senate, and was the best presiding officer
I have ever known there for conducting ordinary business.
He maintained in the chair always his stately dignity of bearing
and speech. The formal phrases with which he declared the
action of the Senate, or stated questions for its decision,
seemed to be a fitting part of some stately ceremonial. He
did not care much about the principles of parliamentary law,
and had never been a very thorough student of the rules. So
his decisions did not have the same authority as those of
Mr. Wheeler or Mr. Edmunds or Mr. Hamlin.

I said to him one day, "I think you are the best presiding
officer I ever knew. But I do not think you know much about
parliamentary law." To which he replied: "I think the sting
is bigger than the bee."

He never lost an opportunity to indulge his gift of caustic
wit, no matter at whose expense. When the morning hour was
devoted to acting upon the reports of committees in cases
of private claims, or pensions, he used to look over, the
night before, the reports which were likely to be on the nex