hink it likely that I could
have accomplished. That Museum was then in charge of the
Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution.

A somewhat similar thing happened to me later. In the year
1885 the Nominating Committee of the Senate, of which Senator
Allison was then Chairman, proposed my name for the Committee
on Foreign Relations. I should have liked that service very
much. I should have liked to study the history of our diplomacy,
and the National interests specially in charge of that Committee,
better than anything else I can think of. But I was then
a member of the Committees on the Judiciary, Privileges and
Elections, Library, Patents and the Select Committee to Inquire
into the Claims of Citizens of the United States against Nicaragua,
no one of which I desired to give up. On the other hand,
Senator Frye of Maine, a very able Senator to whom the Republicans
of Massachusetts were under special obligations for his services
in their campaigns, was not at that time placed in positions
on Committee service such as his ability and merit entitled
him to. Accordingly I told the Committee I thought they had
better amend their report and put Mr. Frye on the Committee
on Foreign Relations instead of myself. That was done.

I incline to think that if that had not been done, and I
had remained on the Committee for Foreign Relations, that
I could have defeated the Spanish Treaty, prevented the destruction
of the Republic in the Philippine Islands, and the commitment
of this country to the doctrine that we can govern dependencies
under our Constitution, in which the people have no political
or Constitutional rights but such as Congress choose to recognize.

I am not sure that modesty or disinterestedness has much
place in the matter of the acceptance of high political office.
We often hear a gentleman say: "I am not fit to be Judge;
I am not fit to be Governor, or Senator, or member of Congress.
I think other men are better qualified, and I will not consent
to stand in their way." This is often said with the utmost
sincerity. But anybody who acts on such a feeling ought to
remember that if he accept the office, it will not be filled
by a worse man than he; if he accept the office, it being
a political office, he is sure that the office will be filled
by a man who will desire to accomplish, and will do his best
to accomplish, the things he thinks for the public good. He
should also remember, so far as the matter