as a rule, selected from the hands who worked on a farm in the summer and taught school in the winter; not for the quantity or quality of his brains, but for his superior muscular development. His equipment consisted of a stout pair of coarse cowhide boots wherewith to discipline the big boys, a lot of rods, a heavy ferule, and a two-bladed pocket-knife -the larger blade used for the cutting and trimming of rods and switches, and the smaller one wherewith to make pens from quills out of the wings of a goose. A goose! fit emblem of all that pertained to an old-time common school in the Mohawk valley. Teaching in those days was principally by induction, and it was induced by rod and ferule from behind a posteriori. Old King Solomon, 'the wisest of men,' made the law that governed the old-time common schools in the valley of the Mohawk. Spare not the rod,' was the edict at the home and in the school. Spare the rod and spoil the child,' came from the pulpit, the schoolroom, and the nursery. Perhaps this is the reason why I did not spoil, and that I am now at the age of eighty-eight years so well preserved. Farm-hands in those days received eight dollars a month and board. When employed in the winter as teachers they sometimes managed to get a little more, but they were obliged to 'board around' with the parents of their pupils. The board usually consisted of johnny-cake for breakfast; corned beef and cabbage, or pork and sauerkraut, for dinner; and sepawn and milk for supper; the lodging a 'shake-down' in the garret. Webster's spelling-book, Columbian reader, English reader, Daboll arithmetic, and Lindley Murray's grammar were the books mostly in use in those far-off days. The Bible was read in some schools where the New England sentiment was dominant. My father, a clergyman, protested against the use of the Old Testament in schools in his neighborhood, and it was thrown out as a book unfit for youth to read. The routine of the school exercises of that day was to commit to memory passages from the books, the meaning of which the pupil had no more conception of than Nicodemus had of the second birth. I recollect this was read at a school examination: 'as wise as a serpent and as harmless as a dove.' The question was asked, 'What is a serpent and what is a dove?' Not one in the class could answer either question. The little fellows were delighted when told that one was a snake and the other a pigeon. They were taught only to read, not to understand.

I remember having been taught to commit to memory this rule in grammar: A verb must agree with its nominative case in number and person.' Well, I wondered what kind of a case a nominative case was, and I had been taught by my pious father that the hairs of my head were numbered, but I could not comprehend why a person should have a num

ber; and to this day the whole matter is just about as clear as mud to my mind. All that I know about English grammar I learned after I had served an apprenticeship at two different mechanical trades. After studying in several very common schools, I finally was graduated from district number one in the village of Herkimer. I had been highly educated in ignorance, for I had not learned that I did not know anything."

On leaving the village of Amsterdam General Spinner returned to Herkimer to become a clerk, and in his twenty-second year began business in his own name. Five years later, 1829, he was made deputy sheriff of the county, which position he held five years, when he was elected sheriff, holding this office three years. During this period he acquired that taste for public life which followed him all through his later life. Having a fondness for military affairs, in 1834 he became quite prominent in organizing the twenty-sixth regiment of New York state artillery, and was elected to, and held in succession, all the intermediate grades up to the rank of major-general of the third division. In 1838 his interest in public concerns led Governor Marcy to appoint him one of the commissioners for building the state hospital at Utica, a trust he discharged with unusual fidelity and acceptableness. When the Whig party came into power, shortly after the erection of this building, political influences were soon in motion questioning in a measure the faithfulness of those to whom this service had been intrusted. General Spinner courted at once. an investigation, and voluntarily laid before the committee every paper and voucher to assist them in their purpose. After a month's examination in which lawyers and experts were engaged, it was discovered that not only were his accounts absolutely correct, but the state was his debtoran amount it has yet to pay. As Herkimer was now his home, the Mohawk valley bank in the village, recognizing his integrity and business abilities, called him to its cashiership, the duties of which he filled with such acceptance as to be promoted at a later period to its presidency.

In 1845 General Spinner was appointed auditor and deputy naval officer of the port of New York, holding the position for four years. In 1854 he was elected on the Democratic ticket to represent the seventeenth district of New York in the thirty-fourth congress. In this congress he was a member of several important committees, including that of "privileges and elections." As this congress made itself somewhat memorable by failing for an entire winter to effect an organization of the house, and some of the circumstances connected with it are of unusual interest, let the general himself give this portion of its history as penned by his own hand to its surviving members, at a reunion held in March, 1888.

VIEW OF THE SMITHSONIAN, NATIONAL MUSEUM, AND THE CAPITOL, WASHINGTON, D. C.

66

By mere accident I became the humble instrument in keeping our ranks solid, and of bringing about the happy result of that election [Banks for speaker]. I desire to relate the incident through which it was effected. I was the only member of that congress who had been nominated and elected to it by the regular organization of the Democratic party who voted for Banks. Being an out-and-out Free Soiler, and hence strongly opposed to the extension of slavery into free territory, I refused to attend the Democratic congressional caucus for the nomination of the officers of the house of representatives, and thus was left free to vote for an anti-slav. ery extension man for speaker. For obvious reasons I declined to attend the caucuses of the opposition party. After the nomination of General Banks for speaker, I refused to go to his room, although I passed his door at Willard's, where we both boarded, many times every day during the two months' struggle for the election of a speaker. For a time I voted for several anti-slavery extension Democrats for speaker, but finally joined those who voted for General Banks. On the night of the first of February, when Governor Aiken had received three more votes than were cast for Banks, and when it was evident the plurality resolution would be adopted the next morning, in coming from my room late in the evening to mail my letters I came in contact with a number of our friends near the door of General Banks's room. Edwin B. Morgan, a member from the Cayuga district of New York, caught hold of me and urged me to go into General Banks's room. I declined to do so, but was overpowered by four or five other members from our state of New York, who joined Mr. Morgan in rushing me into General Banks's room.

I was astonished to find there quite a number of members who had for a long time voted for Banks for speaker. Stanton of Ohio had the floor. He ceased speaking on account of the noise and confusion caused by the entrance of the mob that thrust me into the room. After order was partly restored, Mr. Stanton resumed by saying: As I stated before, some of us think that Mr. Banks should decline to be a candidate, and should name the candidate to be supported on to-morrow.' I was aroused to the threatening danger at once, and sang out: What's going on here?' I knew enough of tactics to see the danger of changing front on the face of an enemy, or as Lincoln put it, 'It's dangerous to swap horses in the middle. of a stream.' The thought of coming defeat made me very angry, and I said in a loud and emphatic manner: 'Let come what will, let who vote for whom he will, as for me, so help me God, I shall vote for Nathaniel P. Banks until a speaker shall be elected.' Then I forced my way out and slammed the door after me with a loud bang. The so-called com

mittee returned to the National Hotel and reported to the meeting the result of their mission to the friends of General Banks at Willard's. Thereupon many members who had voted continuously for Banks declared most emphatically that they would vote for Banks until a speaker should be elected. This quelled the rebellion, and there was no further effort to change our candidate, and it became apparent that either Banks or a Democrat would be elected. The happy result of the next day's vote is known to you."

General Spinner was a member also in the same congress of the committee on elections which had under consideration the contested Kansas seat, and of the special committee appointed to investigate the assault of Preston Brooks of South Carolina upon Senator Sumner of Massachusetts, also of the committee of conference which secured for itself a national reputation by agreeing to disagree on the army appropriation bill. Contemporaneous with the session of this congress, the Republican party came into existence; and though General Spinner had been elected to his seat by the Democratic vote, as the policy, however, which his party pursued did not accord with his sincere conviction, he withdrew from its ranks only to be renominated by the Republicans of his district for the same position, and for two consecutive terms was reëlected by larger majorities, with a single exception, than were received by any of his associates. In the thirty-fifth congress General Spinner was placed on the committee of accounts, and during his membership of the thirty-sixth congress Speaker Pennington honored him with the chairmanship of this same committee. His congressional career covered the period from December 3, 1855, to March 3, 1861.

As General Spinner was thus a member of the house several years immediately preceding the civil war, he necessarily became very familiar with the numerous events that were gradually unfolding, and which finally precipitated the memorable struggle. In this contest he played no insignificant part. Not that his voice was heard frequently in debate in the house. or even upon the stump; the committee room became the arena for his faithfulness, integrity, and wisdom. What others suggested he very often framed, giving points and facts which subsequently proved to be a basis for action.

In this same room no one remained in doubt either as to his purpose or conviction. If partial or class legislation was introduced, or bills affecting the unity or honor of his country, the undesirableness of such action was at once pointed out and received from him the most determined opposition. All party lines were but gossamer threads whenever they affected