ly honorable
and incapable of falsehood. So I answered, Of course, Mr.
Wilson, if you are ill, I will consent to your desire. Mr.
Wilson made his speech the next day. This was December 15.
A few weeks after, on the 24th of February, Mr. Wilson died
suddenly of heart disease. It was an affection of which he
had been conscious for some years, and which he had for some
time expected would cause sudden death. I dare say if he
had been compelled to proceed with his speech that day it
would have been fatal. In that case my life would have been
embittered by the memory.

We had a meeting of the Republican members of the Committee,
for consultation, before we reported the Bill. Mr. Evarts,
while he approved the principle of the measure, shared very
strongly my own hesitation, caused by the fear of the political
effect of the defeat of a measure likely to excite so much
angry strife throughout the country. After hearing the opinion
of those who favored going on with the Bill, Mr. Evarts said:
"I spent a Sunday with Judge Kent on the Hudson a good many
years ago, with several New York lawyers. We all went to
the Episcopal church in the forenoon, and dined with the Judge
after church. During the service one of the company kept
far behind in the responses, which annoyed the Judge a good
deal. At dinner he broke out, 'Davis, why can't you descend
into hell with the rest of the congregation?' I will descend
into hell with the rest of the congregation."

Mr. Evarts made the descent and stood loyally by the measure
in the debate to the best of his great ability.

CHAPTER XIV
CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS AND THE PRESIDENTIAL
SUCCESSION BILL

When I entered the Senate, I found one very serious inconvenience
and one very great public danger in existing conditions.

The great inconvenience grew out of the fact that by the Constitution
the session of Congress must end on the fourth of March every
other year. A third of the Senate goes out at the same time,
and every fourth year the Presidential term ends. That session
of Congress meets, according to our usage, on the first Monday
of December. The meeting cannot well come much earlier without
preventing the members of the two Houses of Congress from
taking part in the political campaign, where they are justly
expected by the people to give an account of their stewardship,
and to discuss the questions to be considered by the people
in the election. So there are but th