"Therefore, all those who honestly and honorably
supported my respectable opponent in the last election for Governor
shall experience from me no inconvenience on that account."
Unfortunately no light is shed upon the interesting inquiry as
to what "inconvenience" was experienced by those who had otherwise
than "honestly and honorably" supported his respectable opponent
in the late contest.

The Black Hawk War was the principal event of the administration
of Governor Reynolds. A treaty of peace being concluded, the
Indians were removed beyond the Mississippi River. In all this
the Governor acquitted himself with credit.

That his aversion to office-holding was in some measure lessening,
will appear from the following:

"Being in the office of Governor for some years, I was prevented
from the practice of the law, and in the meantime had been engaged
in public life until it commenced _to be a kind of second nature
to me._ Moreover, I was then young, ardent, and ambitious, so that
I really thought it was right for me to offer for Congress; and
I did so, in the Spring of 1834."

An "artful politician" would probably have waited until the expiration
of his term as Governor. Not so with this "friend of the people."
He was not only elected to the next Congress, but the death of the
sitting member for the District creating a vacancy, Reynolds was
of course elected to that also, and was thus at one time Governor of
the State and member elect both to the next and to the present
Congress.

His triumph over his "able and worthy competitor" is accounted for
in this wise: "I was myself tolerably well informed in the science
of electioneering with the masses of the people. I was raised with
the people, and was literally one of them. We always acted together,
and our common instincts, feelings and interests were the same."
He here modestly ventured the opinion that his "efforts on the
stump, while _making no pretension to classic eloquence,_ yet
flowing naturally from the heart, supplied in them many defects."

A mite of self-approval, tinged with a philosophy which appears to
have been always kept on tap, closes this chapter of his remarkable
career. He says:

"I sincerely state that I never regarded as important the salary
of the office, but I entered public office with a sincere desire
to advance the best interest of the country, which was my main
reward. If a person would subdue his ambition for office and remain