are not to be cured in the lifetime of a single
man. The men of the day of reconstruction were controlled
by the irresistible logic of events; by a power higher than
their own. I could see no alternative then, and I see no
alternative now, better than that which was adopted.

CHAPTER XVIII
COMMITTEE SERVICE IN THE HOUSE

The career of a Member of either House of Congress is determined,
except in rare cases, by his assignment to Committees. In
the House that is wholly dependent on the favor of the Speaker.
In the Senate those assignments are made by Committees of
the two parties, chosen for the purpose, who first agree on
the representation to be assigned to each. After the Senator
has been assigned to a Committee he remains there unless he
himself desire a change, and if the Members older in the service
retire he succeeds in the end to the Chairmanship of the Committee.
There has been no instance of a departure from this rule,
except when there is a change in the political control of
the body, and no instance of deposing a Member from a Committee
without his consent, except the single and well-known case
of Mr. Sumner.

I was always on friendly terms with Mr. Blaine during my entire
service of eight years in the House of Representatives. But
I owed nothing to any favor of his in the matter of Committee
assignments. When I entered the service I was put on the
Committee of Education and Labor and on the Committee of Revision
of the Laws, both obscure and unimportant. In my second term
I served a little while on the Committee on Elections. I
was also placed on the Committee of Railroad and Canals. I
was made Chairman of a special Committee to visit Louisiana
and inquire into the legality of what was called the Kellogg
Government and report whether Governor Kellogg or his Democratic
rival should be recognized as the lawful Governor of Louisiana.
I was afterward placed on the Judiciary Committee, a position
of great honor, which I liked very much.

With the exception of the last none of these appointments
had any attraction for me. They were all out of the line
of my previous experience in life and the service they required
of me was disagreeable. I was placed on the Committee on
the Judiciary by Mr. Speaker Kerr, a Democrat. Mr. Blaine
at this time very earnestly pressed Mr. Martin I. Townsend
of New York for the place. I do not conceive that I had any
right to complain of Mr. Blaine in this matter.