CHAPTER IX

Elected to 44th Congress-Contest for the seat-Sample of testimony taken in the contest-Pleasant relations with Governor Wise-My Democratic colleagues from Virginia-Prominent members of the House-James G. Blaine-John Randolph Tucker-Benjamin H. Hill and Zach. Chandler-Encounter between Roscoe Conkling and L. Q. C. Lamar-Wintersmith and Lamar-John H. Reagan, the Grand Old Man of Texas-Zebulon B. Vance-The debt the people of Virginia owe to him-Samuel J. Randall-James A. Garfield and Yorktown.

In November, 1874, I was elected a member of the 44th Congress of the United States from the Norfolk, Virginia, District. There were two other candidates in the field besides myself James H. Platt of Vermont, who was nominated by the regular Republican Convention of the district, and Robert Norton, a colored man, who was nominated by a large mass meeting of the colored people held at Yorktown. The Democratic Convention that nominated me met at Suffolk, and after their adjournment they proceeded in a body to Norfolk, and marched through the streets with a band of music and under a flag that had been made for the occasion by the ladies of Suffolk, to the City Hall. They appointed a committee to wait upon me at my office, and requested my appearance before the convention, and demanded my acceptance of the nomination although it was considered at the time as a forlorn hope. The campaign will long be remembered as one of the most exciting that has ever been known in the history of the State.

Mr. Platt was a man of acknowledged ability and was an excellent organizer, but as a member of the Underwood Convention and as a Radical Representative in Congress, he had become particularly obnoxious and offensive to the white people of the Norfolk district. They determined with great unanimity that they would defeat his re-election if possible, and turned out in large numbers to meet me at all my appoint

ments for public speaking in the different neighborhoods. The ladies, particularly, exhibited unusual interest, and cordially extended to me the benefit of their powerful influence. After a campaign of unexampled activity and excitement, continuing for about six weeks, I was declared elected.

Mr. Platt made a contest before the State Board of Canvassers, consisting of James L. Kemper, Governor; R. T. Daniel, Attorney-General; R. M. T. Hunter, Treasurer; James McDonald, Secretary of the Commonwealth, and W. F. Taylor, Auditor of Public Accounts. He was represented by John Lyon and Edgar Allen as his counsel, and I was represented by that brilliant and accomplished lawyer W. W. Gordon, who stood pre-eminent at the Richmond bar. The Board, after a thorough investigation, and an exhaustive hearing, unanimously awarded the certificate of election to After the decision of the Board, I returned to the city of Norfolk, and was received with such demonstrations of applause as have rarely been equaled. The city was brilliantly illuminated and nearly the entire population turned out to meet me at the railroad station, and with a torchlight procession escorted me to my home.

me.

My competitor, Mr. Platt, not being satisfied with the decision of the State Board of Canvassers, determined to contest before the House of Representatives my right to the seat, and accordingly served upon me in due time a notice of contest. He was represented by Henry A. Wise, John Lyon, and Edgar Allen as his attorneys. I did not employ any attorney to represent me because I thought I understood the case thoroughly. This was, perhaps, a mistake on my part. In the taking of the depositions throughout the district, Mr. Platt was generally represented by Governor Wise, and I greatly enjoyed my various encounters with him.

In the county of Prince George I introduced a witness, Mr. B., for the purpose of proving that he was one of the judges of the election at a certain precinct and that after the election he had taken the poll books and ballots from the precinct without being sealed according to law. After he had testified and fully established the point, as made in my answer to the notice of contest he was turned over to Gov

ernor Wise for cross-examination, whereupon the following colloquy occurred: "Mr. Wise-I understand you to say, Mr. B., that you acted as one of the judges of the election at the precinct now under investigation? Mr. B.-Yes,

sir. Mr. Wise-And you ballots to the court-house?

carried the poll books and the Mr. B.-Yes, sir. Mr. Wise

Mr.

And I understand you to say that they were not sealed as the law directs? Mr. B.-Yes, sir. Mr. Wise-I ask you, Mr. B., why were they not sealed? Mr. B.-Because we had nothing to seal them with. Wise-Did you have no sealing-wax? Mr. B.-No, sir. Mr. Wise Did you have no wafers? Mr. B.-No, sir. Mr. Wise-Did you have no flour to make a little paste with? Mr. B.-No, sir. Mr. Wise-Good Heavens! were there no pine trees about there to weep turpentine?"

The foregoing is a fair specimen of what occurred in the taking of depositions in the various counties. When the case finally reached the Committee on Elections in the House of Representatives, Mr. Wise made a characteristic speech and attracted a great crowd to the committee room. It was the last speech he ever delivered and he was exceedingly feeble. During its delivery he found it necessary to remain in his seat, but occasionally he would rise up and give utterance to a brilliant outburst, thus reminding one of a candle flickering in the socket and occasionally blazing up. As I review the past, I recall with pleasure the fact that throughout this exciting contest, involving so much to me, nothing occurred to disturb in the least my personal relations with Governor Wise, and he always treated me with marked courtesy and kindness. In explaining why he had consented to act as counsel for my competitor he remarked that personally he would not give my little finger for Platt's whole body. The Committee on Elections reported against me, but after a most animated debate the House of Representatives reversed the committee and decided the contest in my favor on the 28th of July, 1876.

I took my seat as a member of the House of Representatives of the 44th Congress on the first Monday in December, 1875. My Democratic colleagues from Virginia were men

of high character and acknowledged ability, who had rendered conspicuous services to the State in peace and in war. They were Beverly B. Douglas of the first district, Gilbert C. Walker of the third, George C. Cabell of the fifth, John Randolph Tucker of the sixth, John T. Harris of the seventh, Eppa Hunton of the eighth, and William Terry of the ninth. Mr. W. H. H. Stowell was the only Republican member, and represented the fourth district.

I was appointed a member of the Committee on Banking and Currency of which Samuel Sullivan Cox, better known as "Sunset Cox," was chairman. He was a man of brilliant intellect, ripe scholarship, and overflowing wit. He never failed to command the close and undivided attention of the members on both sides of the Chamber whenever he addressed the House. It is believed that he would have attained the Speakership but for his irrepressible wit and humor. Among the more prominent members on the Democratic side were Michael C. Kerr, Samuel J. Randall, Samuel S. Cox, Alexander H. Stephens, Fernando Wood, Abram S. Hewitt, Benjamin H. Hill, L. Q. C. Lamar, J. Proctor Knott, J. C. S. Blackburn, William S. Holman, William M. Springer, Adlai E. Stevenson, W. R. Morrison, John H. Reagan, David B. Culberson, Charles James Faulkner, and others. Among the more prominent members on the Republican side were James G. Blaine, James A. Garfield, George F. Hoar, William D. Kelley, Charles Foster, Joseph G. Cannon, Omar D. Conger, George W. McCrary, John Kasson, and others.

Michael C. Kerr was nominated for the Speakership by the Democratic caucus and elected by the House in opposition to James G. Blaine, the Republican candidate. Mr. Kerr was a man of lofty character and pre-eminent ability. It was claimed by his many admirers that he resembled very much in his mental characteristics the great Carolina statesman, John C. Calhoun, who, like the great political prophet he was, foretold the dangers that finally culminated in the disruption of the Union. Unfortunately, Mr. Kerr was a man of feeble constitution physically, and was necessarily absent from the chair during the greater part of the session. In the closing hours of the first session the House unani

mously adopted a resolution expressing the heartfelt sympathy of all the members with him in his affliction, which was sent to him by telegraph at the Rockbridge Springs in Virginia, at which place he was temporarily sojourning until his death on the 19th of August, 1876, at that place, in the 49th year of his age. During the protracted illness of Mr. Kerr, the House adopted a resolution, on motion of Mr. Holman on the 24th of June, by which they appointed Milton Saylor of Ohio as Speaker pro tempore, in which capacity he served very acceptably until the final adjournment of the first session in August.

Mr. Blaine was the recognized leader on the Republican side, and was undoubtedly a man of exceptional talent and parliamentary skill. He was remarkably quick and alert, and excelled all the men I have ever heard in what is known as a running debate. While he was under investigation by the Judiciary Committee of the House he exhibited extraordinary audacity, and a stranger sitting in the galleries and observing his bearing would have supposed that the committee were the defendants and he was the prosecutor. With head aloft, eyes aflame and nostrils dilated, he left his seat on the Republican side, charged down the aisle, shook his fist at the Democratic side and exclaimed, in stentorian terms, "Sixty odd of you sit there by the grace and clemency of this great Government, and if you had your deserts you would all be hung as high as Haman!" It is proper to say that this assault was successfully met by Eppa Hunton of Virginia, who added very materially to his well-earned reputation as a strong, ready, and able debater. The last time I ever saw Mr. Blaine was while he was in the office of Secretary of State. I happened to be passing by his house on Lafayette Square, when he alighted from his carriage and seemed to be in a very feeble condition. When I stopped to speak to him, he took me by the hand and said, "If it is a fair question, how old are you?" I said I was born in 1829. He promptly replied, "I was born in 1830." I said, "Mr. Secretary, I am slightly your senior, but you have made a great many more footprints on the sands of time than I have." Raising his hand in that dramatic manner peculiar to him, in a most