ce, and the office of Secretary, and
Sergeant-at-Arms, and Door-keeper, and all the important offices
of the Senate would continue in Democratic hands. So, very
reluctantly, we yielded to the desire of our associates.
Whereupon a resolution was adopted continuing the standing
Committees for the session as they had come over from the last
session, and indeed from the session before, Mr. Davis voting
with the Republicans. This vote was passed by a majority
of two votes. General Logan then introduced the following
resolution: That David Davis, a Senator from Illinois, is
hereby chosen President pro tempore of the Senate. This was
also passed by a majority of two votes, Mr. Davis and Mr.
Bayard not voting. Mr. Bayard descended from the elevation
he had occupied for so short a time, amid general laughter
in which he good-naturedly joined, and Mr. Davis ascended
the throne. He made a brief speech which began with this
sentence: "The honor just conferred upon me comes, as the
seat in this body which I now hold did, without the least
expectation on my part. If it carried any party obligation,
I should be constrained to decline this high compliment. I
do not accept it as a tribute to any personal merit, but rather
as a recognition of the independent position which I have
long occupied in the politics of the country."

So, it was Mr. Davis's fortune to hold in his hands the determination
between the two parties of the political power of the country,
on two very grave occasions. But for his choice as Senator
from Illinois, he would have been on the Electoral Commission.
I do not think, in so important a matter, that he would have
impaired his great judicial fame by dissenting from the opinion
which prevailed. But if he had, he would have given the Presidency
to Mr. Tilden. And again, but for the arrangement by which
he was elected to the Presidency of the Senate, the Republicans
would not have gained control, so far as it depended on the
Committees.

He did not make a very good presiding officer. He never
called anybody to order. He was not informed as to parliamentary
law, or as to the rules of the Senate. He had a familiar
and colloquial fashion, if any Senator questioned his ruling,
of saying, "But, my dear sir"; or, "But, pray consider." He
was very irreverently called by somebody, during a rather
disorderly scene in the Senate, where he lost control of the
reins, the "Anarch old."

But, after all, the