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water while the great crowd on the bank sang at the very top of their voices. Bringing this one back he then went after another. The country fellow was a great stammerer and he was dressed in a suit of nankeen and stood right in the line of the candidates. The preacher grabbed him and against the protests of the fellow in the nankeen clothes forced him into and under the water. As he came out an old sister on the bank shouted glory and said to the unwilling candidate, 'How do you feel now, brother?' He stammered out his reply by saying, 'I feel like a d-d-d-damned fool.' I asked Dysart if that did not fairly represent the condition of the democrats in Macon County. He said it was as 'true as the gospel.'"

In June, 1874, I was appointed by President Grant a member of the Board of Visitors to the Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland. As stated elsewhere in these reminiscences, Matthew Givens Reynolds, a son of an old and valued friend of mine, Doctor Stephen J. Reynolds of Bowling Green, was, while I was a member of the 41st Congress in 1870, nominated by me to the Academy as a midshipman. He had been in the Academy for four years and was to be graduated. I was so tenderly fond of the boy and his father that I was glad to accept the appointment of Visitor the year of his graduation.

The Board was made up of ten or a dozen men from different sections of the country, together with a representation from each house of Congress. The President of the Board was Rear Admiral William Reynolds, whose services to the country were long and distinguished. He was born in 1815 and died in

1879. Of him the Secretary of the Navy said, "In the administration of the duties committed to him he did much to improve the personnel and efficiency of the enlisted men of the Navy, and in the discharge of all the duties devolving on him, during a long career in the service, he exhibited zeal, intelligence and ability, for all of which he was conspicuous." There were many distinguished men on the Board of Visitors, among them General James H. Wilson and General John Gibbon of the Army and Captain Stephen Bleecker Luce of the Navy.

The Superintendent of the Academy at the time was Rear Admiral John Lorimer Worden. It was Worden who commanded the Monitor in the battle royal with the Merrimac on the 9th of March, 1862, in Hampton Roads, and by that battle saved the remainder of the American fleet there from destruction. The Merrimac had on the day before sunk the ships Congress and Cumberland and came back from Norfolk on the 9th for the purpose of destroying those remaining. It was then that the little "Cheese Box, as the Monitor was called, engaged the Merrimac and drove her back disabled to Norfolk. This history is well known but I repeat it here for a purpose.

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The number of midshipmen composing the graduating class were divided into two companies, one of which was commanded by my appointee, Matthew G. Reynolds. The men were drilled on shore and on ship in the presence of the Visitors. For the company best drilled there was to be presented a prize, a beautiful silk American flag. The president of the Board (Admiral Reynolds) appointed Generals Wilson, Gibbon and Captain Luce, to be the judges and

these gentlemen awarded the prize to the company commanded by my appointee.

The two companies were marched to the office or quarters of Admiral Worden, and drawn up in line for the presentation ceremonies. The young and beautiful daughter of Admiral Worden was selected to present the flag. The duties were performed in a most graceful and impressive manner. While this was being done the Board of Visitors were gathered about the Admiral. He said, "That girl (meaning his daughter) was born while I was at sea, and I never saw her until she was five years old." This speech was a simple but wonderful tribute to the loyalty of the man to his country, to his ship, and to his flag. The Government required his services in distant seas, and he gave up home, the companionship of wife and the cooing and pratter of his baby girl, to serve his country and to keep its flag flying.

The presentation of the flag and the circumstances surrounding it made a deep impression upon those who were fortunate enough to be there. This one recital by the Admiral was not all that he said upon that occasion. In a modest way, while tears stood in his eyes, he told of the visit of President Lincoln to him after the battle between the Monitor and Merrimac had taken place. In this battle Worden was painfully wounded in the face, and it was thought for some time that he would lose his sight. He was taken by Lieutenant Greene to Washington and rested at the old Kirkwood Hotel. His head was bandaged and his physical suffering intense. He could not see and his physicians were afraid that his eyes would eventually slough out. While in this con

dition he directed Lieutenant Greene to go to the White House and make a personal report of the battle to the President.

When Greene entered the President's room, the Cabinet was beginning to assemble. Mr. Lincoln at once asked Greene, "Where is Worden?" When told, he picked up his hat and said to the members of the Cabinet, "Keep your seats, gentlemen, I am going to see Worden." The description of that visit by Worden was beautifully eloquent and touching in its simplicity. The President and Greene came to the door and Greene said, "Worden, here is President Lincoln." Worden put his hand out from under the covers, grasped the hand of Lincoln and said, "Mr. President, you do me great honor in coming to see me when there are so many more worse off than I am." "No," said Mr. Lincoln, "I came to thank you in the name of every loyal heart for the great service you have rendered the country."

If this little recital (true in every detail) can add the slightest interest to the blessed memory of one of the greatest and sweetest characters the world has ever known, I will be glad.

X

THE WHISKEY "RING"

Appointment as U. S. Attorney-The Saint Louis Bar-The "Ring's" Methods-Evidence and Prosecution-President Grant's Secretary Implicated -The Bristow-Grant Episode.

In May, 1875, I was appointed United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Missouri by President Grant to succeed William Patrick. At the time of my appointment I was a resident of Louisiana, Pike County, where I had lived since 1862. The notice of my appointment came in a telegram from St. Louis signed by Honorable John B. Henderson, which I received while engaged in the trial of a case in the Louisiana Court of Common Pleas. I had no intimation whatever of this and consequently was greatly surprised when I received the message from Mr. Henderson. I never knew and do not now know what influence brought about the appointment.

I had an acquaintance in General Grant's Cabinet, General W. W. Belknap, whom I had known while he was Collector of Internal Revenue at Keokuk, Iowa. He had made a seizure in Keokuk of a large tobacco factory owned by parties who had their homes in Pike County, Missouri. I was employed by them to represent their interests in certain proceedings

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