ted any measures calculated to lower the
national credit or tarnish the national reputation for good faith.

"I am aware," said he one day in debate, "that financial measures are
dull and uninviting in comparison with those heroic themes which have
absorbed the attention of Congress for the last five years. To turn from
the consideration of armies and navies, victories and defeats, to the
array of figures which exhibits the debt, expenditure, taxation, and
industry of the nation requires no little courage and self-denial; but
to these questions we must come, and to their solution Congress and all
thoughtful citizens must give their best efforts for many years to
come."

It was not only a wise but a bold thing to do, for among the members of
his own party, in Ohio, financial heresies had crept in, and a party
platform was adopted in 1867, looking to the payment of the bonds of the
Government in greenbacks. He was advised to say nothing on the subject
lest it should cost him the nomination in the election just at hand; but
he met the question boldly, and declared that the district could only
have his services "on the ground of the honest payment of this debt, and
these bonds in coin, according to the letter and spirit of the
contract."

Nevertheless he was renominated by acclamation.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

THE MAN FOR THE HOUR.

On the 15th day of April, 1865, the country was thrilled from end to end
by the almost incredible report that President Lincoln had been
assassinated the evening previous while witnessing a performance at
Ford's Theatre, in Washington.

The war was not yet over, but peace seemed close at hand. All were
anticipating its return with joy. The immense sacrifices of loyal men
seemed about to be rewarded when, like a clap of thunder in a clear sky,
came the terrible tidings, which were flashed at once over the
telegraphic wires to the remotest parts of the country.

The people at first were shocked and silent. Then a mighty wave of wrath
swept over the country--a wrath that demanded victims, and seemed likely
in the principal city of the country to precipitate scenes not unlike
those witnessed in the "Reign of Terror" in France.

The boys who read this story can not understand the excitement of that
day. It was unlike the deep sorrow that came upon us all on the second
of July, for Lincoln died a martyr, at a time when men's passions had
been stirred by sectional strife, and his murder was