ccording to a previous
agreement, one branch of Congress ratifying, the candidate having the
more votes was to be declared duly elected.

The country was in an unprecedented state of excitement; and even
European governments felt the shock. The enemies of Republican
government laughed their little laugh, and said that the end of the
republic had come. British bankers brought out into the light
Confederate bonds; while stocks in the United States went through an
experience as variable as the weather in the Mississippi valley. The
public press was intemperate in its utterances, and the political
passions of the people were inflamed every hour. The national House of
Representatives was a vast whirlpool of excitement,--or, rather it was
an angry sea stirred to its depths, and lashing itself into aimless
fury by day and by night. When the vote of a State was called, some
Democrat would object, and the Senate, which was always present, would
retire, and the House would then open a war of words running through
hours and sometimes days. When the debate ended, or rather when the
House had reached the end of its parliamentary halter, the Senate
would again enter, the vote of the State would be counted, and the
next one called. Thus the count proceeded through anxious days and
weary nights. Business was suspended; and the bulletin boards of
commercial 'changes were valueless so long as the bulletin boards of
the newspapers contained "the latest news from Washington."

In this state of affairs there was need of statesmen at the head of
the Republican minority in Congress. There were orators; but the
demand was for men of judgment, energy, executive ability,--men in
whom the Democrats had confidence, who could put a stop to
filibustering, and secure a peaceful solution of a unique and
dangerous problem.

These were forthcoming; the late President Garfield and Gov. Foster,
then a member of Congress, with Kasson, Hale, and other members of
Congress, were among those most active and effective in securing a
peaceful result.

When the electoral fight was on, and the end seemed uncertain, these
gentlemen stepped to the front and fairly won the reputation of
statesmen. They saw that if the filibustering of the Democrats were
brought to a close, it would have to be accomplished by the leaders in
that party and on that side of the House. Accordingly they secured
Fernando Wood, of New York, as the leader in opposition to
filibustering,