Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of Quotations. 1989.
| NUMBER: | 297 |
| AUTHOR: | Henry Adams (1838–1918) |
| QUOTATION: | Had Grant been a Congressman one would have been on one’s guard, for one knew the type. One never expected from a Congressman more than good intentions and public spirit. Newspaper-men as a rule had no great respect for the lower House; Senators had less; and Cabinet officers had none at all. Indeed, one day when Adams was pleading with a Cabinet officer for patience and tact in dealing with Representatives, the Secretary impatiently broke out: “You can’t use tact with a Congressman! A Congressman is a hog! You must take a stick and hit him on the snout!” |
| ATTRIBUTION: | The secretary who made the remark “may well have been Adams’s friend, Secretary of the Interior Jacob Dolson Cox,” according to note 18 on p. 617. Adams was the son of Charles Francis Adams, the grandson of John Quincy Adams, and the great-grandson of John Adams. |
| SUBJECTS: | Congressmen |