Recollections of Forty Years in the House, Senate and Cabinet / An Autobiography.

A long political memoir recounts the author's public career across four decades in Congress and in cabinet posts, describing engagement with the sectional crisis before the Civil War, wartime governance, and the nation's subsequent development. It interweaves personal recollections of ancestry, boyhood, legal training, and early public life with anecdotes and assessments of contemporaries. A central concern is fiscal policy: efforts to finance war, manage public debt, and debates over currency, including discussions meant to counter greenback and free silver movements. The narrative is supplemented with portraits, facsimile letters, and speeches, and aims to offer a firsthand account of legislative measures and political events rather than a broad military history.