lic meeting where President Arthur had been received
during the summer, and had assured him that his action had
the hearty approval and support of the people of the Commonwealth.
I had, of course, no right to find the least fault with the
supporters of Governor Long. He would have been in every
way a most acceptable and useful Senator. I ought to say
that, as I understood it, he hardly assumed the attitude of
a candidate for the place, and declared in a public letter
or speech that he thought I ought to be reelected. So, after
a somewhat earnest struggle I was again chosen.

One curious incident happened during the election. The morning
after the result was declared, a story appeared in the papers
that Mr. Crapo's supporters had been led to come over to me
by the statement that one of them had received a telegram
from him withdrawing his name, and advising that course. The
correspondent of one of the papers called upon Mr. Crapo,
who answered him that he had never sent any such telegram
to Boston. So it was alleged that somebody who favored me
had brought about the result by this false statement. A newspaper
correspondent called on me in Washington, and asked me about
the story. I told him that I had not heard of the story, but
that if it turned out to be true I, of course, would instantly
decline the office. A full investigation was made of the
matter, and it turned out that Mr. Crapo had sent such a
telegram to a member of the Legislature in New Bedford, who
had taken it to Boston and made it known.

The next winter, at my suggestion, a resolution was passed
calling upon the Secretary of War, Mr. Lincoln, to specify
which items in the River and Harbor Bill of the previous winter
were not, in his opinion, advisable, or did not tend to promote
international or interstate commerce. He replied specifying
a very few items only, amounting altogether to a very few
thousand dollars. This reply was made by the Secretary of
War, as he told me in private afterward, by the express direction
of the President, and after consultation with him. That ended
the foolish outcry against the great policy of internal improvement,
which has helped to make possible the marvels of our domestic
commerce, one of the most wonderful creations of human history.
The statistics of its vast extent, greater now, I think, than
all the foreign commerce of the world put together, from the
nature of the case, never can be precisely ascerta