Charlotte Holand Vance Morrill blamed James G. Blaine when her husband Lot Morrill lost his U.S. Senate seat to Hannibal Hamlin in 1869, and she thereafter refused to allow Blaine in her house. Lot Morrill served as governor, U.S. Senator, and Secretary of the Treasury. He, his brother Anson, and Hannibal Hamlin formed a coalition concerned about the spread of slavery and the power of slave states. In the Senate, Morrill led the debate to abolish slavery, supported Reconstruction, and voted to impeach President Johnson. He resigned from the Senate in 1876 to become Secretary of the Treasury under President Ulysses S. Grant, whom Charlotte did allow to visit.