iginal memoranda of the various answers. Not only a
majority of the Republican Senators, but a majority of the
whole Senate declared emphatically for an Election Bill. I
further consulted them whether the authority, in case of a
disputed election, to order, upon hearing, the name of the
person found to be elected to be placed on the roll should
be lodged in the United States Courts, or in some special
tribunal. Two or three preferred that the court should not
be invoked. But a majority of the whole Senate favored vesting
the power in the courts, and those who preferred another way
stated that they were willing to abide by the judgment of
the Committee.

When the House Bill came up, it was, on the 7th of August,
1890, reported favorably with my Bill as a substitute. Meantime
the McKinley Tariff Bill, which Mr. Cleveland had made, so
far as he could, the sole issue in the late election, had
been matured and reported. It affected all the business interests
of the country. They were in a state of uncertainty and alarm.
Mr. Quay of Pennsylvania proposed a resolution to the effect
that certain enumerated measures, not including the Election
Bill, should be considered at that session, and that all others
should be postponed. That, I suppose, would have had the
entire Democratic support and Republicans enough to give it
a majority. It would have postponed the Election Bill without
giving any assurance of its consideration at the short session.
So a conference of Republicans was held at which an agreement
was made, which I drew up, and signed by a majority of the
entire Senate. It entitled the friends of the Election Bill to
be assured that it would be brought to a vote and passed at
the short session, if there were then a majority in its favor.
This is the agreement, of which I have the original, with
the original signatures annexed, in my possession.

"We will vote: 1. To take up for consideration on the first
day of the next session the Federal Election Bill, and to
keep it before the Senate to the exclusion of other legislative
business, until it shall be disposed of by a vote. 2. To
make such provision as to the time and manner of taking the
vote as shall be decided, by a majority of the Republican
Senators, to be necessary in order to secure such vote, either
by a general rule like that proposed by Mr. Hoar, and now
pending before the committee on rules, or by special rule of
the same purport, applicabl