, Brooks, Wood,
Potter, Slocum, and Cox, of New York, Kerr, Niblack, Voorhees, and
Holman of Indiana, Eldridge of Wisconsin, Van Trump and Morgan of Ohio,
unitedly presented a strong array of Parliamentary ability. In
different degrees they were all partisans, but of a manly type.
Earnest discussion and political antagonism were not allowed by them to
destroy friendly relations.

[(1) For complete membership of Forty-first Congress, see Appendix D.]

CHAPTER XVIII.

The changes in the Senate on the 4th of March, 1869, were notable in
the character both of the retiring and incoming members.

--Hannibal Hamlin of Maine, entered the Senate for the fourth time.
His first election in 1848, to fill out the term of ex-Governor
Fairfield, was for three years. He resigned at the close of his second
term to accept the governorship of his State, and midway in his third
term he was promoted to the Vice-Presidency. From his earliest
participation in public life Mr. Hamlin enjoyed an extraordinary
popularity. Indeed, with a single exception, he was never defeated for
any office in Maine for which he was a candidate. In the great Whig
uprising of 1840 he was the Democratic candidate for Congress in the
Penobscot district, and was beaten by Elisha H. Allen, afterwards
widely known as Chief Justice of Hawaii and Minister from that kingdom
to the United States. The candidates were warm personal friends before
and after the contest.

--Matthew H. Carpenter succeeded Mr. Doolittle as senator from
Wisconsin. He was forty-five years of age and had gained high
reputation as a lawyer. He had become well known at the National
Capital by his appearance in the Supreme Court, and from his employment
by Secretary Stanton, during the war, in some government cases of
importance. He was a native of Vermont, but his active career was in
the North-West. His ambition as a lad was for the army; and he spent
some time at West Point, but left without graduating, and devoted
himself to the law. He completed his studies in the office of Mr.
Choate in Boston, and began the practice of his profession in
Wisconsin. Not long after his settlement in his new home, he lost his
sight from over-use of his eyes in study, and for a period of three
years was entirely blind. Judge Black, his intimate friend and
eulogist, believed that this appalling calamity wrought Mr. Carpenter
great good in the end: "It elevated, refined, strengthened all his
facu