ed to become so in different
degrees--John Wentworth, Shelby M. Cullom, Burton C. Cook, and Jehu
Baker. Wentworth had been in the House as a Democrat prior to the
war, having represented the Chicago District continuously from March
4, 1843 to March 4, 1851; and again from March 4, 1853 to March 4,
1855. He was endowed by nature with a mind as strong as his body, and
that was of Titanic proportions. He was an ardent partisan in behalf
of any cause he espoused; was willful, aggressive, and dominating. He
was, at the same time, genial and kindly in many relations of life, not
without gifts of both wit and humor, and courageous to the point of
absolute fearlessness. He had been well educated at Dartmouth College
in his native State, and long practice had made him a dangerous
antagonist in debate. He had been an intense Democrat, but he refused
to join Douglas in the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, and
subsequently united with the Republicans.--Shelby M. Cullom, with good
natural parts and sound education, amiable, pleasing, and endowed with
the gracious quality which attracts and holds friends, won his way
promptly in the House and gave early promise of the success which
afterwards elevated him to the governorship of Illinois, and thence
transferred him to the Senate of the United States.--Burton C. Cook was
recognized as an able lawyer from the beginning of his service. He
constantly grew in influence and strength during the eight years of
his continuous membership, and at its close returned to the bar with an
enviable reputation and with the assurance of that eminent success
which has since attended his professional career.--Jehu Baker was a man
of peculiarities, not to say oddities, of bearing; but these did not
conceal his worth and ability, nor retard the growing reputation which
has since retained him in a diplomatic position.
Missouri, then under the control of the Republican party, included in
her delegation Robert T. Van Horn, a Pennsylvanian by birth, who had
borne a conspicuous part in the contest with the disloyal elements of
the State of his adoption; and John Hogan, a genial Irish Democrat
from the St. Louis District. The Michigan delegation was the same as
in the Thirty-eighth Congress, with the exception of Thomas W. Ferry,
who now entered for the first time, and Roland E. Trowbridge, who had
served in the Thirty-seventh Congress. The Iowa delegation was the
same as in the Thirty-eighth Congress
|