istake, to receive their credentials. The right of Mr. Voorhees, of
Indiana, to a seat in the Thirty-ninth Congress was contested by Henry
D. Washburn. The testimony in this case was laid before the Committee
on Elections early in the session, and after patient hearing of the
parties and careful consideration of the subject, the committee
reported in favor of Mr. Washburn and unseated Mr. Voorhees.

The seat in Congress taken at the opening of the session by James
Brooks, of New York, was decided by the committee, after consideration
of the claims of the contestant, to belong to William E. Dodge, a
merchant of New York city.

The right of John P. Stockton, of New Jersey, to a seat in the Senate
having been disputed on account of irregularity in his election, the
Senate came to a vote on the question, after considerable discussion,
on the 23d of March, 1866. Mr. Stockton was declared entitled to his
place by the close vote of 22 to 21, he giving the decisive vote in
favor of himself. There arose a very exciting debate as to the right
of a Senator to vote for himself under such circumstances. Mr.
Stockton finally yielded to the arguments against his right to sit in
judgment on his own case, and he was unseated March 27th by a vote of
22 to 21. For a time the seat thus vacated, to which New Jersey was
entitled in the Senate, remained unoccupied on account of the refusal
of the Republican Speaker of the New Jersey Senate to give his vote in
favor of the nominee of the Union caucus, Mr. Cattell. On account of
the nearly equal balance of the parties, the choice was long deferred,
but eventually made in favor of Mr. Cattell. The other seat held by
New Jersey in the Senate was practically vacant for a considerable
time on account of the illness of its incumbent, Mr. William Wright,
who consequently resigned and eventually died before the expiration of
the Thirty-ninth Congress.

Other seats in Congress were vacated by death. Of all the States,
Vermont suffered most severely in this respect. A part of the
proceedings of the Thirty-ninth Congress consists of funeral addresses
and eulogies upon Judge Collamer, a distinguished Senator from
Vermont, whose term of service, had he lived, would have expired with
the close of this Congress. He died, lamented by the nation, on the
8th of November, 1865. One who took a prominent part in the funeral
obsequies of Mr. Collamer was Solomon Foot, the surviving Senator from
Vermont. A man te