Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 17.djvu/104

96 ment in some of the states now, as it was in Webster's time.

Senator Charles Sumner had secured the appointment of a young man as reading clerk in the Senate. Senator Edmunds of Vermont induced George C. Gorham, Secretary of the Senate, to remove Sumner's clerk and appoint a tall, fine looking man named Flagg from Vermont. Edmunds was a great lawyer, tall, with a head as bald as a billiard ball. He was perhaps the most influential man in the Senate on questions of law. During the administration of President Grant, Morton, of Indiana, whose legs were paralyzed so he could not walk and had to sit when he spoke, in a sledge-hammer, bulldog style, was considered the administration leader. Conkling, Zach Chandler, Edmunds, Logan and a few others were close seconds, and whooped it up for the President whenever he wanted anything. They looked upon Sumner, who had such a great name abroad, with the utmost contempt. In their opinion he was devoid of common sense, a man of one idea, a fanatic who never thought of anything but opposition to negro slavery, which had been abolished and was a dead issue. In their opinion he was a nuisance. He had little or no influence in the Senate for years. They had his clerk discharged and removed the Senator from the chairmanship of the committee on foreign relations, then considered the leading committee of the Senate, as the Secretary of State is considered the leader of the President's cabinet. They were hardly on speaking terms with him. Carl Schurz of Missouri was Sumner's close personal friend, and they voted the same on nearly everything. When the President wanted anything Sumner and Schurz jumped on it with both feet. When the President proposed to purchase and annex San Domingo, which required a two-thirds majority to ratify the treaty, they rejected it. Henry Wilson, the other Massachusetts Senator, was just the opposite of Sumner.