ified all the springs of our national
life; and although great mistakes were made, and the fervor of this
period was followed by a sickening dispensation of demoralized
politics, it was a great privilege to be permitted to share in the
grand battle for the Nation's life, and the work of radical re-
adjustment which followed.

I have already referred to several of the conspicuous characters
whose names I have grouped. Such men as Collamer, Fessenden,
Browning and Trumbull, were among the famous lawyers and conservatives
on the Republican side of the Senate. They were conscientious and
unflinching partisans, but were studiously anxious to save the
Union according to the Constitution, and deprecated all extreme
and doubtful measures. Opposed to them stood Sumner, Wade, Chandler,
and their radical associates, who believed in saving the Union at
all hazards, and that not even the Constitution should be allowed
to stay the arm of the Government in blasting the power of the
Rebels. It was perhaps fortunate for the country that these
divisions existed, and held each other in check. Mr. Collamer was
the impersonation of logical force and the beau ideal of a lawyer
and judge. There was a sort of majesty in the figure and brow of
Fessenden when addressing the Senate, and his sarcasm was as keen
as it was inimitable; but his nature was kindly, and his integrity
perfect. Trumbull was a less commanding figure, but he greatly
honored his position as chairman of the Judiciary Committee of the
Senate, and his memory will be held in perpetual remembrance as
the author of the Civil Rights Bill and of the XIII Amendment to
the Constitution. Sumner, I think, was the purest man in the
Senate, if not the ablest. He was pre-eminently the hero of duty,
and the servant of what he believed to be the truth. No man could
have made a more absolute surrender of himself to his country in
the great conflict which threatened its life. His weary and jaded
look always excited my sympathy, for he seemed to be sacrificing
all the joys of life, and life itself, in his zeal for the public
service. I knew Wade more intimately than any man in the Senate,
through my association with him as a member of the same Committee
for successive years, and was always interested in his personal
traits and peculiarities. He was "a man of uncommon downrightness."
There was even a sort of fascination about his profanity. It had
in it a spontaniety and heartines