ed
for Buffington and for no other candidate and disappeared
at once. The Selectman asked him why he voted for Buffington.
"If he knew him?" "No!" said the old fellow. "He knows me.
He sends me and each of my sons a document every winter."

Buffington was very anxious about the matter of patronage
and of getting offices for all his constituents. A great
many men applied for his support; frequently there were many
applications for the same office. He did not like to refuse
them. So he made it a rule to give all of them a letter of
recommendation to the Departments. But he had an understanding
with the appointing clerks that if he wrote his name Buffington
with the g he desired that man should be appointed, but if
he wrote it Buffinton without the g he did not wish to be
taken seriously.

Beyond all question the leader of the Massachusetts delegation,
and of the House, was Henry L. Dawes. He had had a successful
career at the bar and in public life before his election to
Congress. In Congress he made his way to the front very rapidly.
No member of the House of Representatives from Massachusetts
and few from any part of the Union had an influence which
could be at all compared with his. He became in succession
Chairman of the two foremost Committees, that of Appropriations
and that of Ways and Means. He was a prominent candidate
for the office of Speaker when Mr. Blaine was elected and
was defeated, as I have said elsewhere, only by the adroit
management of Butler.

Mr. Dawes represented the Berkshire District in the House
for eighteen years when he declined further service there.
He was then elected to the Senate where he remained eighteen
years longer, when he declined further service there. During
the last part of his last term he was troubled with a growing
deafness which I suppose had much to do with his declining
to enter upon the contest for another reelection. He was
regarded by the manufacturers of Massachusetts as their faithful
and powerful representative. He had several contests for
his seat in the Senate when his opponents thought they were
sure of success; but they found themselves left in the minority
when the vote came to be taken. They never fully comprehended
what defeated them. They would get the support of men who
were active in caucuses and nominating conventions and supposed
with excellent reason that they were safe. But there was
in every factory village in Massachusetts som