Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-11-21
SENATOR SHELBY M. CULLOM.


! Henry Stanberry, attorney general. and
| Chief Justice Chase presided over the
| Supreme Court Gen. Horace Porter, who
| is still living. was aid-de-camp to Gen
| Grant, the general.in-chief of the army,
and Judge Lambert Tree of Chicago was
| chief clerk of the Washington city post
office
II have always kept up my acquaint-
| lance with Judge Tree" said Mr.. Gull
lom. although we have belonged to diff
| ferent parties we have been the most
cordial of friends. I,
"Al of the members of the Supreme
Court and the district courts are gone"
| said the senator. John A. kasson Is
me in the House of Representatives., and
| George F. Edmunds, John B. Henderson
and William Sprague are the only sur
viving members of the Senate. I was re-
| elected to the next Congress and the
only man now living who served with me
in the Illinois delegation is Gen. Green b.
.aum. Gen. Granville NJ. Dodge is the
| only other member now living so far
| as I can recollect. He was member of
the Iowa delegation. John 3. Hay of
| Belleville is the only member of the Il
| linois delegation in the Forty-frst Con-
| gress who survives me.
His Distinguished Colleagues.
cupied d seat beside Roscoe Conkling
| during my first term. He was then a
very active member of the House and
| held influential positions in the commit
| tees Mr. Blaine was beginning to be
prominent and influential also; and the
| jealousy that always existed between
| those two brilliant men had become mani
fest as soon as they took their seats in
Congress. Mr.. Conkling was elected to
the Senate that year.
Hale. Frye and Aldrich are the only
members of the Senate who We're there
when l entered that body.
John Morrissey. the prize fighter, who
was down in the directory as 'molder.'
was a member of that Congress- and
there was another quaint character,
named Hotchkiss, from one of the in
terror districts of New York state.
remember a forcible retOrt he once made
| to somebody who referred to the assassi-
nation of President Lincoln an act Of
Divine Providence.
"'You kill Lincoln and get Andy John
son in the White House, and then blame
| it on Cod exclaimed Hotchk6s.
| Elm those days Pennsylvania avenue
was about the muddiest and ugliest street
you ever saw. 1t was sometimes i'm
passabe for carriages. I have seen Wag-
ons stuck in the mud, and Burton c..
Cook one of my colleagues. had charge
of bill making an appropriation to pave
i the Avenue. Speaker COlfaX called me to
the chair in the committee of the whole,
| and | helped Burton along as much as
could. but Proctor Knott of Kentucky got
| the floor and made funny speech ridi-
culing the bill and everything else, and
! finally worked the House up into such
an uproar that it was lost sight Of and
Cook never got another chance to call 1t
| UP that session.
An insignificant Town.
1.-The Capitol was unfinished, they were
still building the dome and putting up
permanent roofs on the wings. Wash
ington was an insignificant town at that
time, and the best part of 1t lay east of
| 18th street The most fashionable resi-
dences were around Judiciary Square.
| / lived down that way during my first
session, but afterward moved up to 18th
street and took room near street get
ting my meals at the Ebbitt House. Pig
iron Kelly and Mercur, one of his col
| leagues from Pennsylvania; Godlove c.
Orth Of Indiana and myself had a table
| together in the dining room.
| There were only twenty newspapers
represented in Washington by correspond
ents when l came, and most of them went
| back to their homes with the congress-
men at the end of the session. w. B.
Shaw and Frank A. Richardson are the
| only ones who survive. BY the directory
of the last session. l notice there were
/ 1S1 newspapers represented, and some of
them have several correspondents.
| Lyman TrumbelI and Richard Yates
were members of the Senate from Illinois
when / came to Congress, and among my
colleagues in the House of Representa-
| tives during my term of service were Nor
man B. Judd, John F. Farnsworth, Elihu
! Washburn, Burton c. Cook, Jehu Baker.
| come back from the war and had been
elected Observation-Disclosures, and Samuel
| S. Marshall, who was one of the leaders
of the democratic party, and several other
| before the war and resigned to accept the
command of a regiment. Farnsworth had
| been a brigadier general in the army;
Judd, who had managed Lincoln's cam
paign for the presidency, had been minis
| ter to Germany for four years; Harding
| of Monmouth enlisted as a private and
| had been promoted to brigadier general;
| Ebon c. Ingersoll Of Peoria had been
| Lovejoy. 1t was very strong Congress
and. coming Immediately after the war.
| the country was in critical condition and
| the responsibilities of legislation were I'M
| usually serious.
Pays Tribute to Lincoln.
| "who was the greatest man you have
known during your long public life?"
asked.
Abraham Lincoln, without question. -
| was the prompt reply. Il have never
known an ADLER statesman. a shrewder
politician. a more eloquent or forcible
| speaker. keener lawyer or a more sue
| cessful diplomatist than President Lin
| coln and his management of the army
! during the civil war ranks him as one of
| the greatest military strategists that ever
| lived If he had been a soldier instead of
| a politician he would have ranked with
/ Napoleon. wellington. Washington. Grant
and the other great captains of history
"Who was the most useful man you
have known in your public life?"
| .'Orvile III. Plat of Connecticut was,
| think, altogether the most useful and the
most influential member of either branch
| Of Congress | have known during the
| period of my service. He was a very
| learned man and had the full use of all