negro girl more than a quarter of a century before, and who had been fighting ever since a battle seemingly hopeless against the doctrines and decisions which he was now to be able to contradict and reverse. It is scarcely possible to imagine a more completely perfect picture of a noble revenge than Salmon Portland Chase delivering judgments on the side of freedom from the chair of Roger Brooke Taney.

VII.

CALEB BLOOD SMITH.

SECRETARY SMITH, of the Interior, appears in Mr. Carpenter's picture as the tall and personable gentleman who stands behind the table, at Mr. Lincoln's left hand. With him is the thin and upright form of Mr. Blair, Postmaster-General. Caleb Blood Smith was a native of Massachusetts, having been born in Boston, April 16, 1808. When he was a boy of six, his parents removed to Cincinnati, Ohio, which was in that day "The Far West." Young Smith went through college in Ohio, beginning his course at Cincinnati College, and graduating at Miami University, and after studying law was admitted to the bar and opened an office at Connersville, Indiana. Hon. O. H. Smith, himself subsequently United States senator from Indiana, was the lawyer with whom the future Secretary studied. He thus relates their first interview, and his opinions of his student.

"One day I was sitting in my office at Connersville, when there entered a small youth, about five feet eight inches high, large head, thin brown hair, light blue eyes, high, capacious forehead and good features, and introduced himself as Caleb B. Smith, from Cincinnati. He stated his business in a lisping tone. He had come to read law with me if I would receive him. I assented to his wishes, and he remained with me until he was admitted to practice, and commenced his professional as well as political career at Connersville. He rose rapidly at

the bar, was remarkably fluent, rapid, and eloquent before the jury, never at a loss for ideas or words to express them; if he had a fault as an advocate, it was that he suffered his nature to press forward his ideas, for utterance faster than the minds of the jurors were prepared to receive them; still, he was very successful before the court and jury. He was one of the most eloquent and powerful speakers in the United States."

Mr. Smith early turned his attention to political life, and became an influential member of the Whig party in Indiana, serving in the Legislature of that State during the four consecutive years from 1833 to 1836, and being Speaker of the House in 1835 and 1836. In 1840 he was one of the Whig electors who voted for General Harrison for President, and during his State political career he also held the responsible financial public office of State Fund Commissioner for Indiana. He was a member of Congress from the fourth district of the State during that interesting period from 1843 to 1847, being the last part of Mr. Tyler's administration and the first part of Mr. Polk's, when the Oregon question, with its alliterative war-cry of "Fifty-four forty, or fight!" stirred the country up so thoroughly about England, and when the annexation of Texas and the subsequent Mexican war showed so plainly how bold, how large, and how dishonest were the plans in operation to "extend the area of freedom" for the use of slavery. Mr. Smith's course in Congress was one of creditable and consistent co-operation with his party. His efficiency as a working member caused him to be appointed after the war as Commissioner of the Board for adjusting war-claims against Mexico; and having completed this task, he established himself at Cincinnati in the practice of the law.

When the Republican party was organized, Mr. Smith joined it, and was on the Ohio Fremont electoral ticket in 1856. Two years later, in 1858, he removed again to Indianapolis, and was there in practice at the bar when appointed by Mr. Lincoln Secretary of the Interior. This office was originally suggested in the session of 1848-9, by Mr. R. J. Walker, then Secretary of the Treasury, who found his own hands overloaded with work. It includes the care of Patents, Public Lands, the accounts of U. S. Marshals and other law officers, Indian Affairs, Pensions, the Census, Public Buildings, etc., being a department for the home and domestic business of the United States. The law creating it was passed March 3, 1849, and Hon. Thomas Ewing was the first Secretary. Mr. Smith had long been a political and personal friend of Mr. Lincoln, and was appointed with full knowledge of his fitness for the place.

In this responsible and important trust Secretary Smith labored steadily and successfully, until his appointment to be U. S. Judge for the District of Indiana, which was confirmed by the Senate, December 22, 1862; and he was succeeded in his place at Washington by Hon. John P. Usher, also an Indianian, Jan. 8, 1863. Judge Smith died only a few months after his appointment, leaving an unspotted personal and official reputation.

VIII.

GIDEON WELLES.

THE grave, reflective features, long beard, and wig of Secretary Welles are familiar to most persons, so extensively has his portrait been placed before the public, either in earnest or in jest. In Mr. Carpenter's picture he sits beyond the table, at Mr. Lincoln's left hand, between him and the group of Messrs. Smith, Blair, and Bates.

Mr. Welles descends from one of the oldest Puritan stocks, being the sixth in direct descent from Thomas Welles, Governor of Connecticut in 1655 and 1658. The Secretary's brother, Thaddeus, still occupies the same farm in Glastenbury which their ancestor the Puritan Governor bought of Sowheag, the great Indian sachem at Middletown, two hundred years ago. This is a long time, in a country of cheap conveyances of land, for real estate to remain in the same family. Mr. Welles' father lived to be 80; his grandfather to be 73; his great-grandfather to be 86; and the next ancestor back to be 72. The wives of these stout old gentlemen lived to about the same age; so that the Secretary has a sort of inherited right to live long.

The father of the Secretary was a thrifty and respectable Glastenbury farmer, and gave his son a good education. The boy, after some experience in the district school, was sent to the Episcopal Academy at Cheshire, near New Haven, and afterward to Norwich