During Mr. Morton's first campaign for Congress he made a speech at Parepa Hall, New York, embodying the following views:

"The vital questions of the day are: Shall the national honor be maintained? Shall the solemn promise made for the payment of the debt incurred for the salvation of the country be held inviolate? Shall the currency which the working man receives for his labor have the same purchasing power as gold? I am in favor of fulfilling all the National promises, of the resumption of specie payment on the first of January next, of a currency redeemable in gold, and of inflation, an an inflation that will make current money of the $250,000,000 in gold now lying idle in the vaults of the Treasury and the banks. I am in favor of opening the Harlem and East rivers for navigation, and of any and all measures that will tend to give increased facilities to the commerce of this great city."

The draft for five million five hundred thousand dollars in the Halifax award was made by this government upon Morton, Rose & Co., of London, with the proviso:

"Her Britannic Majesty's Government should be distinctly advised that the Government of the United States cannot accept of the Halifax commission as furnishing any just measure of the value of a participation of our citizens in the inshore fisheries of the British provinces, and it

protests against the actual payment now made being considered by Her Majesty's Government as in any sense an acquiescence in such measure."

The year Mr. Morton was sent to Congress, 1878, was an extraordinary political year. The State sent twenty-four Republicans instead of seventeen, as before, to Congress, redeemed Massachusetts, made Edward Cooper Mayor of New York by 20,000 majority, and elected Warner Miller to Congress by 3,000 majority. The high water mark in character made that year in the election of Congressmen was one of the causes of the election of Garfield and Arthur toward the close of that Congress, to which election Mr. Morton was a liberal contributor. Upon his election Mr. Morton said in front of his residence, to a great assemblage :

"To the citizens of this district, to that great power, the press of this city, to my old associates the merchants of New York who gave me the endorsement, far too complimentary, which I first saw in the morning papers, and to my personal friends, who have neglected their own interests in their devotion to my canvass, I owe a debt of gratitude so far beyond my ability to repay that I must ask them to fund it at a low rate of interest."

At the commencement of 1879 Mr. Morton was at the head of the nominating committee of the Union League, when attempts were made to

subvert that organization, and his committee announced their views as follows:

"That the club should not abandon the patriotic sentiments which gave it life; that it should still keep the duties of good citizenship prominently among its objects, and let its voice be heard and its strength be felt whenever great principles of national policy or good government are at stake; that the performance of the public and the patriotic duty of the club is entirely consistent with the highest development of its social characteristics."

The attitude of the Union League Club, at that time, had much to do with the selection of General Arthur for Vice-President, and his subsequent tranquil administration. At the birthday of Lincoln in 1879 Mr. Morton made an address before the Lincoln Club, saying:

"We live to preserve to those who follow us a united country which, under the guidance of Lincoln, with God's blessing was saved by the heroic service of Grant, Sherman, Sheridan, Farragut, Porter and the million brave men who risked or gave their lives that the nation might live."

IN LEGISLATION.

The newspapers announced early in April, 1879, that Secretary Sherman was closeted the greater part of the afternoon with Mr. Baker of.

the First National Bank of New York and Mr. L. P. Morton, of Morton, Bliss & Co., completing the arrangements for the huge subscription to the four per cent. loan which clears out the remaining ten-forties."

Harpers' Weekly announced in 1879: "There is little doubt that reasonable bi-metalism has made recently very rapid progress in public favor, and the speech of Mr. Morton of New York, terse and vigorous as it was, and Mr. McCulloch's lecture at Cambridge, are striking illustrations of the fact."

Mr. Morton in Congress was one of a subcommittee to draw up resolutions in regard to the treatment of American Jews in foreign countries, demanding that they be placed on a footing of equal dignity with other United States citizens.

The London Daily News quoted from Mr. Morton in an issue about that time, as saying, in effect, to the leading commercial nations of the world:

"We will not attempt to help you out of your troubles until you agree with us to use silver as a measure of value. We are ready to enter into such a mutual compact with you as will have the effect of restoring silver to its old steadiness of value, so that it may again be a measure of other values. The day is not far distant when the city of New York will the clearing house for the commercial exchanges of the world."

Mr. Morton reported the resolution from the committee on foreign affairs to appoint commissioners and have the United States well represented at both the Australian exhibitions.

He also introduced a bill to make cable telegraphy free with respect to equal rights for all about landing cables on our coasts, and pursuant to that bill additional cables were soon put down, so that for the past year or two cable rates to Europe have been a New York shilling a word instead of four English shillings a word.

In one of his addresses before his constituency Mr. Morton used the following language:

"Republican financial policy, despite Democratic abuse, has achieved the successful resumption of specie payments and restored confidence and brought renewed prosperity throughout the land, reduced the national interest-bearing debt from twenty-four hundred millions in 1865 to eighteen hundred millions, and the annual interest charge from one hundred and fifty-one millions to eighty-four millions. Will the Democrats of the North, who stood by Abraham Lincoln and the army of the Union, under the heroic leadership of Grant, now consent to place the control of the national government in the hands of the men who sought its destruction? Will they support the financial policy of the Democratic party, controlled by a solid South? I believe not. Let the Democrats and Republicans of New York unite