s. The negroes are seven million to-day, and they are increasing
in numbers and gaining in wealth and intelligence. The South, and
indeed the whole country were not more blind to impending perils in the
days of slavery than we now are to the perils of the usurpation in
which the South is engaged. With such examples as this country
furnishes and with the traditions under whose influence all classes are
living, there will always be peril as long as large bodies of citizens
are deprived of their legal rights.

Should such a contest arise, there will be wide spread sympathy in the
North, which might convert a servile or social war into a sectional
civil war.

COURTESY OF THE SENATE--SENATORIAL ELECTION OF 1887

One of my last acts as Secretary was to advise the President to nominate
a Mr. Hitchcock for collector of the port of San Diego, California.
Hitchcock was a lawyer by profession, a graduate of Harvard and a man of
good standing in San Diego. Mr. Houghton, the member for the San Diego
district, had recommended a man who was a saloon-keeper and a Democrat
in politics, but he had supported Houghton in the canvass. Houghton's
request was supported by Senator Sargent. Upon the facts as then
understood the President nominated Hitchcock and one of the first
questions of interest to me was the action of the Senate upon the
nomination of Hitchcock which I supported.

Sargent appealed to what was known as the courtesy of the Senate a rule
or custom which required Senators of the same party to follow the lead
of Senators in the matter of nominations from the respective States. To
this rule I objected. I refused to recognize it, and I said that I
would never appeal to the "courtesy" of the Senate in any matter
concerning the State of Massachusetts. Hitchcock was rejected. The
President nominated Houghton's candidate.

This action on my part was followed by consequences which may have
prevented my re-election to the Senate. When Judge Russell, who was
collector of the port of Boston, was about to resign, General Butler,
who had early knowledge of the purpose of Russell, secured from General
Grant the nomination of his friend William A. Simmons. Simmons had been
in the army, he had had experience in the Internal Revenue Service and
his record was good. He was, however, Butler's intimate friend, and
all the hostility in the State against Butler, which was large, was
directed against the confirmation. I was not pe