452 Thirteenth
Street, Washington, D. C.
Came here as a
member of the House of Representatives for Second District of Ohio this
morning. My travelling companions were: Mr. [Benjamin] Eggleston, my colleague
of the First District; R. W. Clark of Clermont County (Fifth District), and his
wife; [and Samuel] McKee, of Kentucky, his wife and son, Frank, and wife's
sister, Miss Frances Brainerd, of Oxford, Ohio. Captain McKee, now of Mount
Sterling, represents sixteen of the hard mountain counties of northeastern
Kentucky. He doesn't travel on the Sabbath, plays no cards, neither drinks nor
uses tobacco, and is an abolitionist! The war has done the work of centuries.
Five years ago the same constituency would have voted to crucify him.
Have got my first
batch of stationery, and reported myself to the Clerk of the House, Mr.
McPherson. This with my bachelor quarters is my first step in Congressional
life.
SOURCE: Charles
Richard Williams, editor, Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard
Hayes, Volume 3, p. 5
