Reminiscences of Sixty Years in Public Affairs, Vol. 2

Produced by An Anonymous Volunteer
Transcriber's note:
Footnotes are at the end of the chapter.
A few commas have been moved or added for clarity.
Obsolete spellings of place names have been retained; personal names and obvious typographical errors have been corrected.
Reminiscences of Sixty Years in Public Affairs by George S. Boutwell Governor of Massachusetts, 1851-1852 Representative in Congress, 1863-1869 Secretary of the Treasury, 1869-1873 Senator from Massachusetts, 1873-1877 etc., etc.,
New York McClure, Phillips & Co. Mcmii
Copyright, 1902, by McClure, Phillips & Co.
Published May, 1902. N.
XXVIII Service in Congress XXIX Incidents in the Civil War XXX The Amendments to the Constitution XXXI Investigations Following the Civil War XXXII Impeachment of Andrew Johnson XXXIII The Treasury Department in 1869 XXXIV The Mint Bill and the Crime of 1873 XXXV Black Friday—September 24, 1869 XXXVI An Historic Sale of United States Bonds in England XXXVII General Grant's Administration XXXVIII General Grant as a Statesman XXXIX Reminiscences of Public Men XL Blaine and Conkling and the Republican Convention of 1880 XLI From 1875 to 1895 XLII The Last of the Ocean Slave Traders XLIII Mr. Lincoln as an Historical Personage XLIV Speech on Columbus XLV Imperialism as a Public Policy INDEX
My election to Congress in 1862 was contested by Judge Benjamin F. Thomas, who was then a Republican member from the Norfolk district. The re-districting of the State brought Thomas and Train into the same district. I was nominated by the Republican Convention, and Thomas then became the candidate of the People's Party, and at the election he was supported by the Democrats. His course in the Thirty-seventh Congress on the various projects for compromise had alienated many Republicans, and it had brought to him the support of many Democrats. My active radicalism had alienated the conservative Republicans. As a consequence, my majority reached only about 1,400 while in the subsequent elections, 1864-'66-'68 the majorities ranged from five to seven thousand.