July 8 Friday – Mathew B. Brady (1823-1896) photographed Sam. Sam wrote at 10:30 PM from Washington to Livy. After summarizing the state of the bill and his dinner companions (Ex-Vice President Hamlin, Senator Pomeroy (1816-1891), Mr. Gardiner G. Hubbard, & Mr. Richard B. Irwin), Sam wrote:
Drove up to the Senate & staid till now (10.30 PM) & came back to hotel. Oh, I have gathered material enough for a whole book! This is a perfect gold mine.
Called on the President [Grant] in a quiet way this morning. I thought it would be the neat thing to show a little embarrassment when introduced, but something occurred to make me change my deportment to calm & dignified self-possession. It was this: The General was fearfully embarrassed himself! [MTL 4: 167].
Sam may have met Grant in 1867 at a Washington receiving line. If so, they did not speak. Sam also wrote a note to Joseph Twichell, and canceled the planned Adirondack trip. Livy was now four months pregnant, and with Jervis on his deathbed, the trip was not practical.
Virgilius (a pseudonym) wrote to Sam, responding to his July 1870 Galaxy sketch “How I Edited an Agricultural Paper Once”:
My Dear Sir, / I regret exceedingly that your agricultural editorship has not been appreciated. Other laborers in that field have met with the same ingratitude from an ignorant community. Some years ago one of the governors of Indiana devoted himself to the improvement of the stock in that benighted state shortly before a general election. A constituent addressed him a note inquiring what he thought of the hydraulic ram? Mr Governor immediately and properly replied that it was better than Southdown for mutton & equal to Merino for wool, and would you believe it—the prejudices of the people were such that he lost his re-election [MTP]. Note: the writer refers to Joseph A. Wright (1810-1867) tenth Governor of Indiana (1849-1857) who once suggested the “hydraulic ram” could improve sheep breeds, and was embarrassed to discover the ram wasn’t an animal at all. Though being turned down at the polls, Wright was later appointed to fill a U.S. Senate seat (1862-3).