s been standing
by me very generally; I agreed with Bishop Simpson to give Senator
Harlan this place, and I must keep my agreement. I would like to
take care of Uncle Jesse, but I do not see that I can as a member
of my cabinet."
I replied: "If you have determined it, that is the end of the
matter, and I shall so report to the friends who are gathered at
the National, so that Uncle Jesse may go on home."
President Lincoln seemed much affected. He followed me to the
door, repeating that he would like to take care of Uncle Jesse,
but could not do so.
Jesse Dubois went home to Springfield, but he remained as stanch
a friend to Lincoln as ever, and was one of the committee sent from
Springfield to accompany the remains of the immortal President to
their last resting-place.
George S. Boutwell was another member of the Thirty-ninth Congress
who merits some attention. He afterward became very influential
among the radical element, and was one of the managers on the part
of the House in the impeachment of President Johnson. It is hard
to understand in a man of his sober, sound sense; but I am convinced
that he firmly believed President Johnson to have been a conspirator
in securing the assassination of Mr. Lincoln. He was Secretary of
the Treasury under President Grant, who had for him the greatest
respect and confidence. I never was very intimate with him, but
I knew him fairly well, and considered him one of the leading public
men of Massachusetts of his day.
One of the leading members of the Pennsylvania delegation in the
Thirty-ninth Congress was William D. Kelley. He was a prominent
member of the House, a good speaker, although he always prepared
his addresses at great length, principally on the tariff; but he
did not confine himself to his manuscripts entirely. His specialty
in Congress was the tariff. He was called "Pig-iron Kelley" because
he was for high duties on pig-iron and, in fact, everything
manufactured in Pennsylvania. That State, as everybody knows, is
the great iron and steel manufacturing State of the Union, and its
representatives in Congress were in that day, as they are in this,
the highest of high protective tariff advocates.
Before entering Congress, William D. Kelley for a number of years
had been a judge of one of the more important courts of Philadelphia.
He was elected to and kept in the House, without any particular
effort on his own part, because he was considered one of
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