ything well done or well said by one of his colleagues
than in anything of his own. He was a man of an exceedingly
sweet, gracious and affectionate nature, loving as a child,
yet as men of such natures often are, thoroughly manly. He
was incapable of any meanness or conscious wrong-doing. He
had a very pleasant and ready wit. The people of Middlesex
County, especially of Concord, were very fond of him, and
would have kept him in public life as long as he desired.
But his heath was not good in Washington. The climate of
the place and the bad air of the House were unfavorable. He
did not fancy very much the strife and noise of that turbulent
assembly. So he gladly accepted an appointment to the office
of Judge of Probate of Middlesex County which was absolutely
suited to him. He administered that important office to the
entire satisfaction of the people until his death. I think
George Brooks's smile would be enough to console any widow
in an ordinary affliction.

William Barrett Washburn, afterward Governor and Senator,
was Chairman of the Committee on Claims.

He is one of the best recent examples of a character whose
external manifestations change somewhat with changing manners
and fashions, but the substance of whose quality abides and
I believe will abide through many succeeding generations.
He was a New England Puritan. He brought to the service of
the people a purity of heart, a perfect integrity, an austerity
of virtue which not so much rendered him superior to all temptation
as made it impossible to conceive that any of the objects
of personal desire which lead public men astray could ever
to him even be a temptation.

There were few stronger or clearer intellects in the public
service. His mind moved rapidly by a very simple and direct
path to a sound and correct result in the most difficult
and complicated cases. The Chairmanship of the Committee
on Claims was then with two or three exceptions the most
important position in the House. He spoke very seldom and
then to the point, stating very perfectly the judgment of
a clear-headed and sound business man. But his opinion carried
great weight. He was universally respected. Every man felt
safe in following his recommendation in any matter which he
had carefully investigated.

Congress was beset by claims to the amount of hundreds and
hundreds of millions, where fraud seemed sometimes to exhaust
its resources, where, in the conflict of te