John C. Rives, it is stated, died yesterday. He was a marked
character, guileless, shrewd, simple-hearted, and sagacious, without pretension
and without fear, generous and sincere, with a warm heart but no exterior
graces. I first met him in the winter of 1829 in the office of Duff Green,
where he was bookkeeper. In the winter of 1831, I think, we met at Georgetown
at the house of Colonel Corcoran. F. P. Blair, whom I met on the same evening
for the first time, had been out with Rives to try their rifles. They had first
met a few days previous. Rives was then a clerk in the Fourth Auditor's office,
— Amos Kendall. The latter passed the evening with us. Years later Rives and
myself became well acquainted. He was first bookkeeper and then partner of
Blair and made the fortunes of both.
In the House of Representatives a sharp and unpleasant discussion
has been carried on, on a resolution introduced by the Speaker, Colfax, to
expel Long, a Representative from Ohio, for some discreditable partisan
remarks, made in a speech last Friday. There being an evening session, I went
to the Capitol for the first time this session. Heard Orth, Kernan, Winter
Davis, and one or two others. The latter was declamatory, eloquent, but the
debate did not please me, nor the subject. Long I despise for his declarations,
but Colfax is not judicious in his movement. Long went beyond the line of his
party, and Colfax cannot make them responsible for Long's folly.
SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles,
Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 —
December 31, 1866, p. 8-9
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