of the
House, and thrice its Speaker, had been a Senator, and for a few
months Secretary of State under Presidents Garfield and Arthur.
He had an extended acquaintance and many enthusiastic friends. He
lacked breadth and strength of learning, as well as sincerity of
character. He, however, came near being a great man, especially
in public, popular estimation.

The Forty-seventh Congress met December 5, 1881, and being elected
its Speaker over Mr. Randall, the candidate of the Democrats, I
made this inaugural address:

"Gentlemen of the House of Representatives,--I thank you with a
heart filled with gratitude for the distinguished honor conferred
on me by an election as your Speaker. I will assume the powers
and duties of this high office with, I trust, a due share of
diffidence and distrust of my own ability to meet them acceptably
to you and the country. I believe that you, as a body and
individually, will give me hearty support in the discharge of all
my duties. I invoke your and the country's charitable judgment
upon all my official acts. I will strive to be just to all,
regardless of party or section. Where party principle is involved,
I will be found to be a Republican, but in all other respects I
hope to be able to act free from party bias.

"It is a singular fact that at this most prosperous time in our
nation's history no party in either branch of Congress has an
absolute majority over all other parties, and it is therefore
peculiarly fortunate that at no other time since and for many years
prior to the accession of Abraham Lincoln to the Executive chair
have there been so few unsettled vital questions of a national
character in relation to which party lines have been closely drawn.

"The material prosperity of the people is in advance of any other
period in the history of our government. The violence of party
spirit has materially subsided, and in great measure because many
of the reasons for its existence are gone.

"While the universal tendency of the people is to sustain and
continue to build up an unparalleled prosperity, it should be our
highest aim to so legislate as to permanently promote and not
cripple it. This Congress should be, and I profoundly hope it will
be, marked peculiarly as a business Congress.

"It may be true that additional laws are yet necessary to give to
every citizen complete protection in the exercise of all political
rights. With evenly balanced party power, with