sentences:  He served on the Committee on Privileges and Elections, on a special committee to investigate the assault made by Preston Brooks on Charles Sumner, and on a conference committee of both houses on the Army appropriation bill, which the senate had rejected on account of a clause that forbade the use of the military against Kansas settlers.During his last term (36th Congress), he was chairman of the Committee on Accounts.On the recommendation of Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase, he was appointed by President Lincoln as Treasurer of the United States and served from March 16, 1861, until his resignation on July 1, 1875.