I told him I should vote for the bill, because I believed
it to be right, but that it would lose me the support of every
newspaper in Massachusetts that had been friendly to me before.
I voted accordingly. The vote was met by a storm of indignation
from one end of Massachusetts to the other, in which every
Republican newspaper in the State, so far as I know, united.
The Springfield _Republican_ and the Boston _Herald,_ as will
well be believed, were in glory. The conduct of no pick-
pocket or bank robber could have been held up to public indignation
and contempt in severer language than the supporters of that
bill. A classmate of mine, an eminent man of letters, a gentleman
of great personal worth, addressed a young ladies' school,
or some similar body in Western Massachusetts, on the subject
of the decay of public virtue as exemplified by me. He declared
that I had separated myself from the best elements in the
State.
The measure was passed over the President's veto. But it
cost the Republican Party its majority in the House of Representatives.
A large number of the member of the House who had voted for
it lost their seats.
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