f the country.

CHAPTER XIX
SALMON P. CHASE

Among the very interesting characters with whom I have formed
an acquaintance in Washington was Chief Justice Salmon P.
Chase. I saw him but a few times. But on those occasions
he spoke to me with a freedom with which famous public men
seldom speak, even to intimate friends. I incline to think
it was his habit to speak freely to comparative strangers.
But of that I know nothing.

When I first went to Washington, in the spring of 1869, I
was invited by Commissary-General Eaton, whose daughter was
the wife of my cousin, to attend a meeting of a club at his
house. The club was composed of scientific men who met at
each other's houses. The reading of a paper by the host was
followed by a supper. The host was permitted to invite such
guests as he saw fit, not members of the club. Chief Justice
Chase was one of the guests. I was introduced to him there
for the first time, except that I went, when I was quite a
young man, long before the war, to hear him speak and, with
a great many other persons, went up and shook hands with him
after the speech was over.

The Chief Justice left General Eaton's house when I did,
and asked me if I were going his way. So we walked together
about a mile. He talked all the way about the next nomination
for the Presidency; about the prospects of the various candidates,
and the probability of the success of the Democratic Party
if they had a candidate who would be satisfactory to the Republicans
who were disaffected with the present policies. It was evident
that his great man had this subject, to use a cant phrase,
"on the brain." This was before the Chief Justice had his
paralytic shock. He was in the full vigor of health, a model
of manly strength and manly beauty, giving every evidence
that his great intellectual power was undiminished.

Not long afterward a friend of mine went to Ohio with his
wife. In those days it was necessary for persons going from
Washington to the Northwest to cross Baltimore in a carriage--
the Washington station and the Ohio station being in different
parts of the city. A friend of my friend went to Baltimore
to see his wife, who was going to Ohio, across the city and
then to return to Washington. He knew Chief Justice Chase.
He introduced him to my friend on the cars, and they rode
across Baltimore in one carriage, the two gentlemen, the Chief
Justice, and the wife. The Chief Justice talked to h