lly reported the nomination to
the Senate without recommendation. When the matter came up in executive
session, "Senator Edmunds at once took the floor and attacked Judge
Fuller most viciously as having sympathized with the rebellion." But
Cullom was primed to meet that argument. He had been furnished with a
copy of a speech attacking President Lincoln which Phelps had delivered
during the war, and he now read it to the Senate, "much to the chagrin
and mortification of Senator Edmunds." Cullom relates that the Democrats
in the Senate enjoyed the scene. "Naturally, it appeared to them a very
funny performance, two Republicans quarreling over the confirmation of
a Democrat. They sat silent, however, and took no part at all in the
debate, leaving us Republicans to settle it among ourselves." The result
of the Republican split was that the nomination of Fuller was confirmed
"by a substantial majority."

Another nomination which caused much agitation at the time was that of
James C. Matthews of New York, to be Recorder of Deeds in the District
of Columbia. The office had been previously held by Frederick Douglass,
a distinguished leader of the colored race; and in filling the vacancy
the President believed it would be an exercise of wise and kindly
consideration to choose a member of the same race. But in the Washington
community, there was such a strong antipathy to the importation of
a negro politician from New York to fill a local office that a great
clamor was raised, in which Democrats joined. The Senate rejected the
nomination, but meanwhile Mr. Matthews had entered upon the duties of
his office and he showed such tact and ability as gradually to soften
the opposition. On December 21,1886, President Cleveland renominated
him, pointing out that he had been in actual occupation of the office
for four months, managing its affairs with such ability as to remove
"much of the opposition to his appointment which has heretofore
existed." In conclusion, the President confessed "a desire to cooperate
in tendering to our colored fellow-citizens just recognition." This was
a shrewd argument. The Republican majority in the Senate shrank from
what might seem to be drawing the color line, and the appointment was
eventually confirmed; but this did not remove the sense of grievance in
Washington over the use of local offices for national party purposes.
Local sentiment in the District of Columbia is, however, politically
unimportant, a