ly he insisted that the debt should be reduced so
rapidly that the people would take pride in having paid it,
and would be relieved from the temptation of listening to
the specious and seductive arguments of persons contriving
dishonest methods of getting rid of it by issuing fiat money,
or any device of direct or indirect repudiation. Many persons
can remember in what dangerous forms this temptation came,
and how many men, who otherwise deserve to be held in high
esteem, yielded to it wholly or partly. Mr. Boutwell's powerful
influence was a very important factor in attaining the result
in which we all now take so much satisfaction, and keeping
the American people in the path of duty and honor.

William A. Wheeler, of New York, entered the House in 1869.
I soon became very well acquainted with him, an acquaintance
which ripened into a very intimate friendship. He was a very
serious, simple-hearted and wise man. There was no man in
his time who had more influence in the House. His ancestors
dwelt in my native town of Concord in the early generations,
and in Lincoln, which had been part of Concord. One of the
family emigrated to Vermont. Wheeler's father went from Vermont
to Malone, New York, where he was born, and where he was left
by his father an orphan in very early youth. The widow and
children were without any property whatever, but got along
somehow. Wheeler got an education, spending two or three
years in college, and became the foremost man in his part
of New York. The people of his district were in character
and way of thinking very much like our best Massachusetts
constituencies. Wheeler had little respect for the devious
and self-seeking politics which are supposed to have been
needed for success in that State. He very much disliked Roscoe
Conkling, and all his ways. Conkling once said to him: "Wheeler,
if you will join us and act with us, there is nothing in the
gift of the State of New York to which you may not reasonably
aspire." To which Wheeler replied: "Mr. Conkling, there
is nothing in the gift of the State of New York which will
compensate me for the forfeiture of my own self respect."

Mr. Wheeler was one of the sub-committee, of whom Mr. Frye
and myself were the other two Republican members, to inquire
into the condition of the legality of the Kellogg State Government
of Louisiana. He suggested what is known as the Wheeler
compromise, the acceptance of which by both sides was