After the Senator
has been assigned to a Committee he remains there unless he
himself desire a change, and if the Members older in the service
retire he succeeds in the end to the Chairmanship of the Committee.
There has been no instance of a departure from this rule,
except when there is a change in the political control of
the body, and no instance of deposing a Member from a Committee
without his consent, except the single and well-known case
of Mr. Sumner.
I was always on friendly terms with Mr. Blaine during my entire
service of eight years in the House of Representatives. But
I owed nothing to any favor of his in the matter of Committee
assignments. When I entered the service I was put on the
Committee of Education and Labor and on the Committee of Revision
of the Laws, both obscure and unimportant. In my second term
I served a little while on the Committee on Elections. I
was also placed on the Committee of Railroad and Canals. I
was made Chairman of a special Committee to visit Louisiana
and inquire into the legality of what was called the Kellogg
Government and report whether Governor Kellogg or his Democratic
rival should be recognized as the lawful Governor of Louisiana.
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