CHAPTER XVI.

PERSONAL REMINISCENCES OF DOOLITTLE AND CARPENTER.

Senator James R. Doolittle was a man of deep religious feeling. He was an active and consistent member of the Baptist Church. He was a good singer, especially of sacred music, in which he took great delight. If he had taken to the pulpit instead of to the bar, in early life, he would have become a noted preacher, and no doubt he would have been as conspicuous in the history of his religious denomination as he was as a politician in the ranks of the political parties. Most likely, if he had entered the ministry he would have become an evangelist, and gone about the country, like others of that kind, calling sinners to repentance, and warning them to "flee from the wrath to come." In such a work he would have been a great success. Greatly to his advantage were his splendid personal presence, his apparent earnestness, and the deep solemnity of his voice was often accompanied by a sort of cant that has a fascination for some people, while it disgusts others. The trait in his character that would have helped him on in his career as a revivalist, was his thorough orthodox belief in John Calvin's "plan of salvation," including foreordination, election, reprobation, and endless punishment. His charming enunciation, his sincere manner, his captivating declamation, made him one of the most effective and convincing of speakers. No doubt the religious denomination to which he belonged was cruelly robbed of one of its might-have-been great lights when James R. Doolittle turned his attention to the law and to politics. No doubt that the judiciary of the State lost the makings of a great judge when he laid aside the ermine for the toga of a Senator. He was naturally well qualified to win great respect and honor upon the bench. He was well read in the literature of his profession. He was honest and sincere. He had an innate love of justice. He liked to sce

fair play. It was these qualities that led him to break with his party, after Mr. Lincoln was assassinated, and to follow the fortunes of Andrew Johnson, though he knew the choice must lead, him into private life and into that obscurity which he always dreaded. He thought that the plan which Andrew Johnson had evolved for the reconstruction of the States lately in rebellion was precisely the one which Mr. Lincoln would have adopted, if his life had been spared. Mr. Lincoln would not have made war upon the Republican majority in Congress, as Johnson did, had there been a disagreement between them, and there would have been conciliatory measures substituted by Lincoln, instead of hot disputes, disagreements and estrangements as there were under the stubborn, pig-headed Tennesseean. Nobody knew better than Judge Doolittle what would be the disastrous consequences to his political fortunes if he enlisted under Johnson's banner. He had everything to lose and nothing to gain-nothing but the approval of his own conscience. Up to that time he had stood solid with the Republican party of his State. The constitutional objection to his first election, because his judicial term had not expired, had been obliterated and forgiven by the unanimity with which the Republican Legislature had chosen him for a second term, and Lis close intimacy with Mr. Lincoln was enough to make most men respect and love him. That he would have been chosen for a third term, without serious opposition among the Republicans, is as certain as the rising of the sun on the day of the election, if he had drifted along in harmony with the majority in Congress, and had consented to the impeachment of President Johnson. He had already been nearly twelve years in the Senate, and that service, together with his term upon the bench, had destroyed his law practice, and the prospect of having to return to his profession for a living did not furnish an alluring picture, especially to a man whose face had already been turned towards the setting sun. But he did what he solemnly and conscientiously believed to be his duty to his country as he then saw it, and in view of the whole situation no man can say that he was actuated by mercenary motives. That he was an ambitious man is not denied; but it was an ambition to do right, and to act for the best interests of

the country. His patriotism was never doubted. All through the trying and exciting period of secession and rebellion he had but one thought, and that was to save the Union. To this end he devoted all his energies.

As a political speaker before miscellaneous audiences. Judge Doolittle never had a superior, no, not an equal, in Wisconsin. Those who have heard him on any great occasion will never forget the splendid presence of the man, the charm of his oratory, the music of his voice, or the convincing power of his words. He was always grand, earnest, solemn, persuasive, never flippant, though sometimes apparently sanctimonious. He was almost entirely devoid of the faculty or sense of humor. He never told stories on the stump, never embellished his speeches with anecdotes or funny comparisons, was never epigrammatic, witty, or sarcastic. The comic side of things, even in politics, had no attraction for him. He never indulged in the clap-trap of oratory, but he always spoke-to use his own language—“as an earnest man speaking to earnest men."

Judge Doolittle was always an acknowledged power in the United States Senate, as he was in the councils of any political party with which he acted. He had few equals in that branch of Congress as a ready debater, at the time he held a seat in it, and his high legal attainments were admitted by all. If he had voted for the impeachment of Andrew Johnson, the President would have been convicted and deposed, and Benjamin F. Wade of Ohio, then the president pro tem. of the Senate, would have become President of the United States, a radical of the radicals, and the probable result would have been a relighting of the fires of civil war in the South. If Judge Doolittle's influence saved the country from the re-opening of the bloody conflict that closed at Appomattox Courthouse, no man can overestimate the value of his negative vote at the close of the impeachment trial.

There have been members of the United States Senate, men of brilliant intellectual abilities, who were intemperate, and addicted to other popular vices of the times; but Judge Doolittle was not one. of them. No scandals ever followed him, social or political. If there were opportunities to make money out of the State secrets

of the government that were obtained in secret session, Senator Doolittle never availed himself of them to his own pecuniary advantage, nor did he ever stealthily impart such information to his personal or political friends to aid in their speculations. At the end of his twelve years of service, honestly rendered to his country, he retired from his post a poor man; but he carried with him into his forced retirement the respect of his colleagues and a good name, which, we are assured on the highest authority, is "better than great riches."

I happened to be in Washington city in the spring of 1867, when the impeachment trial of President Andrew Jackson began, and meeting the late Judge Doolittle one morning, he said that the great fight was on and advised me to postpone the time of my intended return home and remain in the capital and see the end of the conflict between two of the co-ordinate branches of the Federal government. "It is the first time in the history of this nation," said the Senator, in his solemn and impressive manner. "that impeachment proceedings have been commenced against the President of the United States, and it is highly probable that this trial will be the last of the kind in our history; certainly it will not be attempted again in your time or mine, and the present case is so important in all respects, especially from the political and historical standpoint, that the performance will be well worth your time and attention. Some of the best legal talent in the nation is engaged on both sides, and although I am convinced that the President cannot be convicted, nevertheless the managers appointed on the part of the House of Representatives to prosecute the case will perform their duty with all the ability they possess, and with a zeal worthy of a better cause." I was easily persuaded to remain: I was present in the Senate chamber nearly every day of the long trial, and the recollection of it all is now a source of much pleasure to me. The preliminary proceedings looking up to this great event had been going on for more than a year; the country was in a state of ferment over the dispute about reconstruction, and differences between President Johnson and the radical Republicans in Congress were well defined and irreconcilable. Judge Doolittle had already adopted the views of the President upon this subject