Many persons
can remember in what dangerous forms this temptation came,
and how many men, who otherwise deserve to be held in high
esteem, yielded to it wholly or partly. Mr. Boutwell's powerful
influence was a very important factor in attaining the result
in which we all now take so much satisfaction, and keeping
the American people in the path of duty and honor.
William A. Wheeler, of New York, entered the House in 1869.
I soon became very well acquainted with him, an acquaintance
which ripened into a very intimate friendship. He was a very
serious, simple-hearted and wise man. There was no man in
his time who had more influence in the House. His ancestors
dwelt in my native town of Concord in the early generations,
and in Lincoln, which had been part of Concord. One of the
family emigrated to Vermont. Wheeler's father went from Vermont
to Malone, New York, where he was born, and where he was left
by his father an orphan in very early youth. The widow and
children were without any property whatever, but got along
somehow. Wheeler got an education, spending two or three
years in college, and became the foremost man in his part
of New York.
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