But it was bitterly attacked by Mr.Reed of Maine, afterward Speaker, and defeated.

Afterward I succeeded in getting it through the Senate when the Democrats had possession of the House, during the Administration of President Harrison, and it became a law.
I have been assured by many Southern men that that measure, and the report and speech in which I advocated it, had a very strong and wide influence in restoring good feeling toward the Union in the minds of the people of Virginia.

Several of the graduates of William and Mary who afterward became Republicans have assured me of this with great emphasis.

I was much pleased to get the following letter from Governor Henry A.Wise, the eminent Virginia statesman, who was, with two or three exceptions, the most powerful and influential advocate of secession in the South.
RICHMOND VA Feby 13th 1872.
HON MR HOAR OF MASSTS.
_Honored Sir._ I write for no reason but one of pure feeling of respect-- not even for a reply.

I am a visitor of Wm and Mary College -- truly of the most venerable of the "Mothers of Thought" -- and have read your excellent appeal to the H.Reps: in her behalf.