I entered the House of Representatives of the United States
at the spring session which began March 4, 1869, at the beginning
of Grant's Administration. It then contained a very interesting
and important group of men, the most brilliant and conspicuous
of whom was, undoubtedly, Mr. James G. Blaine. The public,
friends and foes, judged of him by a few striking and picturesque
qualities. There has probably never been a man in our history
upon whom so few people looked with indifference. He was
born to be loved or hated. Nobody occupied a middle ground
as to him. In addition to the striking qualities which caught
the public eye, he was a man of profound knowledge of our
political history, of a sure literary taste, and of great
capacity as an orator. He studied and worked out for himself
very abstruse questions, on which he formed his own opinions,
usually with great sagacity. How far he was affected in his
position by the desire for public favor I will not undertake
to say. I think the constitution of his mind was such that
matters were apt to strike him in much the same way as they
were apt to strike the majority of the people of the North,
especially of the Northwest, where he was always exceedingly
popular.
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