dation, was John R. Lynch
of Mississippi. I had a very pleasant acquaintance with him
when he was in the House. He was afterward Fourth Auditor
of the Treasury.

I was the means of procuring for him a national distinction
which very much gratified the men of his color throughout
the country. The supporters of Mr. Blaine in the National
Convention of 1884 had a candidate of their own for temporary
presiding officer. I think it was Mr. Clayton of Arkansas.
It was desired to get a Southern man for that purpose. The
opponents of Mr. Blaine also desired to have a candidate of
their own from the South. The colored Southern men were generally
Blaine men. I advised them to nominate Lynch, urging that
it would be impossible for the Southern colored people, whatever
their preference might be as a candidate for the Presidency,
to vote against one of their own color. Lynch was nominated
by Henry Cabot Lodge, afterward my colleague in the Senate,
and seconded by Theodore Roosevelt and by George William Curtis.
Lynch presided over the Convention during the whole of the
first day, and a part of the second. He made an admirable
presiding officer.

Quite curiously, I have had something to do with introducing
a little more liberal practice in this respect into the policy
of the country.

I was the first person who ever invited a colored man to
take the Chair in the Senate. I happened to be put in the
Chair one afternoon when Vice-President Wheeler was away.
I spied Mr. Bruce in his seat, and it occurred to me that
it would be a good thing to invite him to take my place, which
he did.

When I was presiding over the National Convention of 1880,
one of the English Royal Princes, Prince Leopold, Duke of
Albany, son of Victoria, visited the Convention. He was brought
up and introduced to me. I suppose that was one of the very
rare instances in which a scion of the English Royal House
was presented to anybody, instead of having the person presented
to him. Wishing to converse with the Prince, I called Mr.
Bruce to the Chair. I thought it would be an excellent opportunity
to confer an honor upon a worthy colored man in the presence
of a representative of this Royal House. Frederick Douglass
afterward called on me with a delegation of colored men, and
presented me with a letter signed by prominent colored men
of the country, thanking me for this act.

It also was my fortune to secure the selection, on my recommendation,