his Cabinet as Secretary of the
Treasury. Governor Boutwell was consulted about it, and gave
it his approval, although it is understood that afterward,
in obedience to the indignant feeling of the people, which
was deeply excited, he voted against the confirmation of Simmons
in the Senate. At the same time he informed his associates
that he did not wish to have them understand that he requested
them to vote against Simmons because of his opposition, or
because of any so-called courtesy of the Senate. Simmons
was the manager of Mr. Boutwell's campaign for reelection,
and General Butler was his earnest supporter, giving him notice
and urging him to repair at once to Boston when the movement
against him became formidable.

I am quite sure that but for the determination of the people
of Massachusetts not to endure Butler and Butlerism any longer,
and probably but for the appointment of Simmons, I should
never have been elected Senator. It is likely there would
have been no change in the office until this moment.

When I left home for Washington at the beginning of the December
session of Congress in 1876, the late Adin Thayer told me
that some of the Republicans had got sick of Butler's rule,
and they were determined to have a candidate for Senator who
could be trusted to make zealous opposition to him and his
methods, and that they proposed to use my name. I told him
I did not believe they would be able to get twenty-five votes,
that Mr. Boutwell, then Senator, was an able man, and that
I did not think the fact even that he was understood to be
a strong friend and ally of General Butler would induce the
people to displace him. Mr. Thayer replied that at any rate
there should be a protest.

I had no communication from any other human being upon the
subject of my candidacy for the Senate, and made none to any
human being, with one exception, until my election by the
Legislature was announced. My oldest sister was fatally sick,
and I received a letter every day giving an account of her
condition. In a postscript to one letter from my brother,
he made some slight allusion to the election for Senator then
pending in the Massachusetts Legislature. But with that exception
I never heard about it and had nothing to do with it.

I can truly say that I was as indifferent to the result, so
far as it affected me personally, as to the question whether
I should walk on one side of the street or the other. I did
not un