members were in Congress before the war. In February, 1866, Mr.
Rousseau, in the course of a speech on the Freedmen's Bureau Bill,
made the remark, "If you intend to arrest white people on the _ex
parte_ statement of negroes, and hold them to suit your convenience
for trial, and fine and imprison them, then I say that I oppose you;
and if you should so arrest and punish me, I would kill you when you
set me at liberty."

To this Mr. Grinnell replied, "I care not whether the gentleman was
four years in the war on the Union side or four years on the other
side, but I say that he degraded his State and uttered a sentiment I
thought unworthy of an American officer when he said that he would do
such an act on the complaint of a negro against him."

To this Mr. Rousseau, on the following day, replied: "I pronounce the
assertion that I have degraded my State and uttered a sentiment
unworthy an American officer to be false, a vile slander, and unworthy
to be uttered by any gentleman upon this floor."

Some months after this, Mr. Rousseau, in a public speech delivered in
New York city, denounced Mr. Grinnell as a "pitiable politician from
Iowa." In a speech made in the House on the 11th of June, Mr. Rousseau
said of Mr. Grinnell: "I do not suppose that any member of this House
believed a word he said. When a member can so far depart from what
every body believes he ought to know and does know is the truth, it is
a degradation, not to his State, but to himself."

"When any man," replied Mr. Grinnell--"I care not whether he stands
six feet high, whether he wears buff and carries the air of a certain
bird that has a more than usual extremity of tail, wanting in the
other extremity--says that he would not believe what I utter, I will
say that I was never born to stand under an imputation of that sort.

"The gentleman begins courting sympathy by sustaining the President of
the United States preparatory to his assault upon me. Now, sir, if he
is a defender of the President of the United States, all I have to say
is, God save the President from such an incoherent, brainless
defender, equal in valor in civil and in military life. His military
record--who has read it? In what volume of history is it found?"

Mr. Rousseau determined to resent the insult which he conceived to be
offered him in this speech by inflicting a bodily chastisement upon
Mr. Grinnell. On the morning of June 14th, Mr. Rousseau informed a
military friend of hi