er are satisfied with this appointment, I certainly shall
interpose no objection. The gentleman named is well qualified,
and has more than once held high place at the hands of the party
which he has but recently deserted, and to which he will no
doubt return in due time. We have, however, in New England an
old-time custom, as sacred as if part of the written law, that if a
man is so unfortunate as to lose his companion he will not marry
again within one year. Now sir, I have always thought this rule, as
to time, might well be applied to the matter of office-seeking.
Where a man has been repeatedly honored by his party as this
appointee has been, but where, prompted by motives purely unselfish
no doubt, he has gone over to the camp of the enemy, I think a due
sense of modestly should impel him _to serve in the ranks at least
one year_ before being an applicant for high office at the hands
of his newly found friends."

Coming over to the Democratic side of the Chamber, well to its
front sat the Hon. William R. Morrison of Illinois. By virtue
of his position as Chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means
he was the traditional leader of the House. Possessing little
of the brilliancy of the leader of the minority, Colonel Morrison was
none the less one of the ablest and most useful members of that
body. He had for many sessions been a member of the House, and
had been a soldier in the Mexican and in the Civil War. His record
was honorable, both as soldier and legislator. He was the author of
the Tariff Bill which was fully debated during the first session
of that Congress, and was in some measure a determining factor
in the Presidential campaign that soon followed. At a later
day, Colonel Morrison was a prominent candidate for nomination
as President by the national convention of his party. His personal
friendships and antagonisms were well known. It is related of him
that during a serious illness, apprehending that the dread messenger
was in near waiting, arousing himself to what appeared to be a last
effort, he said in scarcely audible tones to a sorrowing colleague
at his bedside: "I suppose when this is all over they will have
something to say about me, as is the custom, in the House. Well, if
Springer, and Cox, and Knott, and Stevenson want to talk, let them
go ahead, but if old Spears tries to speak _just cough him down."_

Never in any political gathering has there been a more effective
speech, of a s