or, and at the close of his term was chosen United
States senator. He is a man of character,--quiet and undemonstrative
in manner, but with extraordinary qualities of firmness and endurance.

The House of Representatives was organized without delay or
obstruction. Mr. Blaine was re-elected Speaker,--receiving 126 votes
to 92 cast for George W. Morgan of Ohio, who had been nominated as the
Democratic candidate. The oath of office was administered to the
Speaker by Mr. Dawes of Massachusetts, who by Mr. Washburne's
retirement had become the member of longest continuous service. The
vote of the opposing candidates showed that in the elections for this
Congress the Democrats had made an obvious gain in the country at
large. The Republicans for the first time since 1861 failed to
command two-thirds of the House,--a circumstance of much less
importance when Congress is in harmony with the Executive than when,
in conflict with him, the necessity arises for passing bills over his
veto. But while the majority was not large, the House received
valuable accessions among the new members.

--Joseph R. Hawley, who now entered the House, was born in North
Carolina of Connecticut parents. He was educated in the North and
began the practice of law at Hartford in 1850. Gifted with a ready
pen, he soon adopted the editorial profession, and was conducting a
Republican journal in 1861 when the war broke out. He enlisted the
day after Sumter was fired upon, and remained in the service until the
rebel armies surrendered, when he returned to his home and became
editor of the _Hartford Courant_, with which his name has been
conspicuously identified for many years. His military record was
faultless, as might well be inferred from the fact that he began as a
private and ended with the _brevet_ of Major-General. He at once
entered upon a political career, which in a State so closely divided
as Connecticut involves labor and persistence. His two contests for
Governor in 1866 and 1867, with James E. English as his opponent,
enlisted wide-spread interest. The men were both popular; English had
maintained an honorable reputation as a War Democrat at home, and had
voted in Congress for the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution.
Both could therefore appeal to the Union sentiment then so pronounced
among the people. In the election of 1866 Hawley was victorious by
a few hundred; in the election of 1867 English was victorious by a few
h