Some books brought shivers. Incredibly, we found a copy of the Constitution, Jefferson’s Manual and Rules of the House of Representatives of the United States 103rd Congress, stamped with the Speaker’s name.

There was only one set of duplicates in the boxes — several copies, all new, of the memorial service held for the Speaker in Massachusetts.

But from our point of view, the most precious of the books were two clothbound, outdated, and much used textbooks on General Ethics and Special Ethics, both carefully signed with the young Thomas P. O’Neill, Jr.’s name and his Cambridge address, from his time as a student at Boston College. Both books have doodles and pencil notes on the margins in Tip O’Neill’s hand. The books had not been bought new, but were the well-worn cast-offs of other students.

Perhaps we have become jaded by the endless stream of scandal and flat-out rip-offs committed by politicians and their corporate cronies, all with their hands in our communal till. We hope, but don’t automatically expect our political leaders to be ethical and certainly not to have studied the subject. Completely unattractive, and of no intrinsic value, the Speaker and his wife had nonetheless preserved the two ethics textbooks over their lifetimes.

We were reminded once again why Tip O’Neill was so revered. He wielded tremendous power, but he was a good and decent man. He had a moral center. He knew who he was and where he came from. He was a leader. The ethics books may be unattractive, frayed, marked up and falling apart, but they are valuable to us because they are not in fine condition. These books were not collected — they were used, in the finest sense of the word, infused in the man and a lifetime of good works on behalf of the people of the United States. And, no, they have no coffee stains.

— Renée M. Roberts can be reached at renee@rose-books.com. A catalogue of the Everyday Library of Millie O’Neill and Speaker of the House Thomas P. O’Neill, Jr. will be available from Clock & Rose Press.