due
to his influence and capacity for conciliation. The compromise
consisted in an agreement to allow the Republican State officers
to remain in office during the remainder of their terms, without
turbulent or factious opposition, to submit quietly to their
authority on the one hand, and that the two Houses of the
Legislature, on the other hand, should seat the Democratic
contestants whom our sub-committee found entitled to their
seats. This compromise in reality gave effect to the opinion
of the committee, as if they had been a tribunal of arbitration.
Of course they had no authority to enforce their opinion against
the objection of either party.

As soon as the nomination of President Hayes was declared
in the Convention of 1876, I spent a very busy hour in going
about among the delegates whom I knew, especially those from
the Southern States, to urge upon them the name of Mr. Wheeler
as a suitable person for Vice-President. I have no doubt
I secured for him his election. Mr. James Russell Lowell
was a Massachusetts delegate. He was a little unwilling to
vote for a person of whom he had no more knowledge. I said
to him: "Mr. Lowell, Mr. Wheeler is a very sensible man.
He knows the 'Biglow Papers' by heart." Lowell gave no promise
in reply. But I happened to overhear him, as he sat behind
me, saying to James Freeman Clarke, I think it was: "I understand
that Mr. Wheeler is 'a very sensible man.'"

Wheeler was one of the best parliamentarians and one of the
best presiding officers I ever knew. He had no children.
It is pathetic to remember the affection which existed between
him and his wife. Their long living together had brought
about a curious resemblance. She looked like him, talked
like him, thought like him, and if she had been dressed in
his clothes, or he had been in hers, either might have passed
for the other. When she died Wheeler seemed to lose all interest
in this world, shut himself off from all ordinary activities,
and died a year or two after, I suppose with a broken heart.

CHAPTER XVI
POLITICAL CONDITIONS IN 1869

When the Republican Party came into power in 1869 under its
great and simple-hearted President, it found itself confronted
with very serious duties. They were enough to fill ordinary
men in ordinary times with dismay. The President was without
political experience. He had never held civil office. He
had voted but twice in his life. He had voted the Whig ticket
onc