erest or training in foreign affairs.
I know now that Mr. McKinley did fully intend to tender to me the
Treasury portfolio, and I also know, but I do not feel at liberty
at this time to reveal, the influence in Illinois which induced
him to change his mind. I am very glad now that the position was
not tendered to me, as I might have accepted it, because of the
known desire of certain friends in this State to secure my seat in
the Senate, in which event I should have been long since retired
to private life.

Senator Allison was the trusted adviser of President after President
--Grant, Hayes, Garfield, Arthur, Harrison, McKinley, Roosevelt
all called upon him. There was no Senator who had to a greater
extent their confidence. Had he lived he would have been as close,
if not closer to President Taft. He served in the Senate longer
than any other man in all our history. He broke Benton's long
record. He broke the long record of Senator Morrill. He served
eight years in the House and more than thirty-five years in the
Senate, a total of forty-three years and five months in Congress.
For forty-three years the history of his life embodies the complete
financial legislative history of the United States.

Another conspicuous member of the Thirty-ninth Congress was Nathaniel
P. Banks of Massachusetts. He had a long, varied, and interesting
career, both in public and private life. He was many times elected
to Congress from Massachusetts, and in 1856, after a long contest
which lasted more than two months, was elected Speaker of the House
of Representatives. He was Governor of his State, and in 1861,
for a short time, president of the Illinois Central Railroad, from
which position he resigned to enter the Union army as a major-
general, serving throughout the war.

I did not know him when he was stationed at Chicago but I became
very well acquainted with him in Congress. He was Chairman of the
Committee on Foreign Affairs, of which committee I was a member.
Not only was General Banks a polite, agreeable man, but he was an
exceptionally effective speaker, and very popular in the House.

There occurs to me a little controversy which he had with the late
Senator Dawes, who was at that time a member of the House from
Massachusetts.

General Banks was undertaking to pass a bill to which Mr. Dawes
objected. Banks was nettled. Taking the floor, he accused his
colleague of always objecting to bills he attempted to pass.