judgment of condemnation as a farce,
and laid down its high functions before the sophistries and
jeers of the criminal lawyer? Shall he speculate about the
petty political calculations as to the effect on one party
or the other which induced his judges to connive at the escape
of the great public criminal? Or, on the other had, shall
he close the chapter by narrating how these things were detected,
reformed and punished by Constitutional processes which the
wisdom of our fathers devised for us, and the virtue and purity
of the people found their vindication in the justice of the
Senate?"

This passage was quoted very extensively by the Democratic
speakers all over the country, and was circulated as a campaign
document. I was reproached by some of my Republican associates
for furnishing ammunition for the enemy. But I was satisfied,
and I am now, that in saying what I did I rendered a great
service to the Republican Party. What was said helped to
arouse public attention, and the masses of the people--always
pure and incorruptible--set themselves earnestly and successfully
to reform the abuses.

It never occurred to me that these abuses furnished any reason
for placing the powers of the Government in the hands of the
Southern Democracy, or their ally, Tammany Hall. If the men
who saved the Union were not to be trusted to keep it pure;
if the men who abolished slavery could not carry on a Government
in freedom and in honor, certainly it was not likely that
the men of Tammany Hall, or the men who had so lately attempted
to overthrow the Government, would do it any better.

I happened to be at lunch with General Garfield just after
the Belknap trial. He spoke of my argument, and expressed
his strong sympathy and approval. I told him that I had been
looking into the history of the first sixteen years of the
Government, which included the Administrations of Washington
and John Adams and the first term of Jefferson, and that in
my opinion there was not only more corruption in proportion
then than there had been under Grant, but there had been more
in amount, notwithstanding the difference in population. I
stated to him a good many instances. He urged me to make
a speech in which I should say publicly what I had said to
him. I acted on his advice, and in the course of a speech,
in reply to Mr. Lamar, of Mississippi, I spoke as follows:

"The Republican Party, as I have said, has controlled the
Government for