64 WITH MR. CHAMBERLAIN IN THE 



chiefly composed of Republican Senators, Evarts, 

 Sherman, Hawley, Allison, Hale, Hoar, and Ed- 

 munds. The last named was the oldest member of 

 the Senate, and he did me the honour of taking my 

 arm in to dinner. The conversation was principally 

 on the subject of the President's free-trade message 

 issued that day. Colonel Hay was at that time 

 engaged, in conjunction with his old colleague John 

 G. Nicolay, in writing the life of Abraham Lincoln, 

 which came out in the Century Magazine from 1886 

 to 1890, and which, with sundry additions, was pub- 

 lished in ten volumes in 1890. After dinner the 

 Colonel showed us a lot of interesting old MSS. 

 which he kept in a portfolio, including inter alia the 

 original draft Proclamation abolishing slavery, in 

 Old Abe's own handwriting. 



Colonel Hay was born at Salem, Indiana, in 1838, 

 and was therefore in his fiftieth year at this time. 

 He was of Scottish descent. He was educated at 

 Brown University, and after being called to the bar 

 he was, in 1861, admitted to practice in the Supreme 

 Court at Springfield, Illinois, where he became 

 associated with Abraham Lincoln, who was also a 

 barrister in that city. When Lincoln became Presi- 

 dent he took Hay with him to Washington as his 

 Private Secretary, and the latter remained his 



