170 POLITICAL LIFE-VIII 



sort of onslaught upon every one supposed to be friendly 

 to General Grant, and the effect in one case was revealed 

 to me rather curiously. Matthew Carpenter, of Wisconsin, 

 was then one of the most brilliant members of the United 

 States Senate, a public servant of whom his State was 

 proud ; but he had cordially supported the administration 

 and was consequently made the mark for bitter attack, day 

 after day and week after week, by the opposing journals, 

 and these attacks finally culminated in an attempt to base 

 a very ugly scandal against him upon what was known 

 among his friends to be a simple courtesy publicly ren- 

 dered to a very worthy lady. The attacks and the scandal 

 resounded throughout the anti-administration papers, 

 their evident purpose being to defeat his reelection to the 

 United States Senate. 



But just before the time for the senatorial election in 

 Wisconsin, meeting a very bright and active-minded stu- 

 dent of my senior class who came from that State, I asked 

 him, "What is the feeling among your people regarding 

 the reelection of Senator Carpenter 1" My student imme- 

 diately burst into a torrent of wrath and answered: "The 

 people of Wisconsin will send Mr. Carpenter back to the 

 Senate by an enormous majority. We will see if a gang 

 of newspaper blackguards can slander one of our senators 

 out of public life." The result was as my young friend 

 had foretold: Mr. Carpenter was triumphantly reflected. 



While I am on this subject I may refer, as a comfort to 

 those who have found themselves unjustly attacked in 

 political matters, to two other notable cases within my 

 remembrance. 



Probably no such virulence has ever been known day 

 after day, year after year, as was shown by sundry presses 

 of large circulation in their attacks on William H. Seward. 

 They represented him as shady and tricky ; as the lowest 

 of demagogues; as utterly without conscience or ability; 

 as pretending a hostility to slavery which was simply 

 a craving for popularity; they refused to report his 

 speeches, or, if they did report them, distorted them. He 



