"The second reason for my amendment is this: both branches of Congress, by deliberate votes, at the last Session, passed a law requiring these blanks to be printed by the lowest bidder; but when the Post Of fice Appropriation Bill was sent to a Committee of Conference, in the expiring hours of the Session, that clause was struck out, with others like it, that had been agreed upon by both Houses. This is within the knowledge and recollection of the members of this House. This provision ought to be placed in the appropriation bill, and ought to be the general law of the land in regard to this thing."

These arguments were irresistible, and Mr. Colfax had the pleasure of seeing his amendment adopted.

CHAPTER V.

Reělection to the 36th Congress -Majority in this Election - Meeting of Congress-Situation of the Country-The Sectional Troubles-The John Brown Raid-The Contest for Speaker-Mr. Clark's Resolution-Denunciation of the Republicans - Greeley on the "Helper Book."-The Contest for Speaker a hard fight-Mr. Colfax's Defence of the Republican Party-Maintains the Right of his Party to elect a Speaker-Manly Assertion of his Independence-Mr. Colfax maintains the Freedom of the Press, and administers a sharp Rebuke to the Democrats-Hopelessness of the Contest for the Speakership-Withdrawal of Mr. Sherman and Election of Mr. PenningtonMr. Colfax is made Chairman of the Post Office Committee-Efforts in behalf of the Pacific States and Territories-Supports Mr. Lincoln for President-A prophetic Announcement.

IN the fall of 1858, the elections for members of the Thirty-Sixth Congress were held. Mr. Colfax was again the nominee of his party. A strenuous effort was made to defeat him, but he was reëlected by the triumphant majority of 1,931 votes.

The First Session of the Thirty-Sixth Congress opened in Washington City on the 5th of December, 1859. The country was in great agitation. The Slavery question had reached a point from which there seemed to be no retreat for either party, and the two Sections were rapidly becoming more and more embittered against each other. The Presidential Campaign of 1860 was close at hand, and, worse than all, the invasion of Virginia by John Brown, and his subsequent execution by the authorities of that State,

had brought matters to a crisis, which wiṣe and foreseeing men felt would be fatal to the peace and happiness of the country. The whole land rang with the angry voices of the contending parties, and the prudent counsels of those who dreaded the ultimate results of these things, were unheeded or unheard.

The struggle at once extended to Congress, and was carried on there with a bitterness that is even now surprising. It manifested itself first in the contest for the Speakership. The Republicans nominated John Sherman, of Ohio, as their candidate, and the Democrats, Thomas S. Bocock, of Virginia, as theirs. On the first ballot Mr. Bocock received 86, and Mr. Sherman 66 votes. The vote had hardly been announced, when Mr. John B. Clark, of Missouri, offered the following resolution:

"Whereas certain members of this House, now in nomination for Speaker, did indorse and recommend the book hereinafter mentioned,

Resolved, That the doctrines and sentiments of a certain book, called 'The Impending Crisis of the South; How To Meet It,' purporting to have been written by one Hinton R. Helper, are insurrectionary and hostile to the domestic peace and tranquillity of the country, and that no member of this House who has indorsed or recommended it, or the compend from it, is fit to be Speaker of this House.

This proposition embodied the views of the extreme Southern members of the House, during this memorable Session. No one who differed from them on the question of Slavery, or who dared to express his sentiments, was to receive any thing at their hands.

"The book thus advertised," says Mr. Greeley, "was written by a young North Carolinian, of the poorer middle class, who, having migrated to California, and spent some time in the Northern States, had imbibed ideas respecting Slavery which it was not safe to express in his native State. Those ideas he had embodied in his 'Impending Crisis,' which was, in substance, a vehement appeal to the poor whites of the South against persistence in servility to the Slaveholders, backed by ample statistics proving Slavery specially injurious and degrading to them, as well as baleful and blighting to the entire South. This book, being deemed effective as an anti-Slavery argument, whether in the North or in the South, had been recommended to general attention in a circular signed by two-thirds, at least, of the Republican members of the last Congress, including, of course, many of those returned to the present. Messrs. Sherman and Grow, between whom the Republican vote for Speaker was divided, were both among the signers of this circular. Hereupon, Mr. Clark proceeded to make, amidst interruptions and questions of order, such a speech as a Slaveholder might be expected to make on such a theme; urging that no man who had recommended such a book as Helper's, ought to be chosen Speaker, and insisting on discussing the contents and bearing of that book at leisure; while several Republican members, instead of reprehending this discreditable interruption of the proper business of the House, and demanding that the Clerk should proceed to call the roll for another attempt to elect a Speaker, rose to

deprecate and explain, and apologize, and insist that if they had signed a recommendation of any such book, it was in total ignorance of its contents, which they utterly condemned and repudiated. Thus, amid great confusion, Mr. Clark carried the point he was aiming at; and the House, after one more refusalyeas 113; nays, 115,-consented to adjourn at a little past two o'clock, without taking a second ballot for Speaker."

Mr. Clark's resolution was denounced by the more courageous Republicans in no unmeasured terms, and as warmly defended by the pro-Slavery element, and the war of words was fierce and bitter.

Mr. Colfax took an active part in the debate, giving and receiving hard blows with all the skill of an old gladiator. On the 4th of January, 1860, he said, in reply to the charge that the Republican Party had delayed the organization of the House:

"The gentleman from Missouri [Mr. Anderson] yesterday read to us a memorial of the mail contractors that we should organize, and then made a speech suggesting the carrying out of that petition. I do not know whether the speech was authorized by the mail contractors, or not; but in it he denounced this side of the House, and appealed, as usual, to the 'Conservative members' to elect a Speaker. I have only to say, if in this he was the organ of the mail contractors, and if that speech be recognized as their sentiments, it is not calculated to promote good feeling on this side of the House towards them.

* The American Conflict,-pp. 304, 305.