But the order and dignity of the body have been preserved.
Mr. Davis's fame must rest on his long and faithful and able
service as a wise, conscientious and learned Judge. In writing
these recollections, I have dwelt altogether too much on little
foibles and weaknesses, which seem to have something amusing
in them, and too little, I am afraid, on the greater qualities
of the men with whom I have served. This is perhaps true
as to David Davis. But I have said very much what I should
have said to him, if I had been chatting with him, as I very
frequently did, in the cloak room of the Senate.
He was a man of enormous bulk. No common arm chair would
hold him. There is a huge chair, said to have been made for
Dixon H. Lewis of Alabama, long before the Civil War, which
was brought up from the basement of the Capitol for his use.
The newspaper correspondents used to say that he had to be
surveyed for a new pair of trousers.
I was one night in the Chair of the Senate when the session
lasted to near three o'clock in the morning. It was on the
occasion of the passage of the bill for purchasing silver.
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