sident of the United States shall devolve upon any of
the person named herein, if Congress be not then in session,
or if it would not meet in accordance with law within twenty
days thereafter, it shall be the duty of the person upon whom
said powers and duties shall devolve to issue a proclamation
convening Congress in extraordinary session, giving twenty
days' notice of time of meeting.

"Sec. 2. That the preceding section shall only be held to
describe and apply to such officers as shall have been appointed
by the advice and consent of the Senate to the offices therein
named, and such as are eligible to the office of President
under the Constitution, and not under impeachment by the House
of Representatives of the United States at the time the powers
and duties of the office shall devolve upon them respectively.

"Sec. 3. That sections one hundred and forty-six, one hundred
and forty-seven, one hundred and forty-eight, one hundred
and forty-nine and one hundred and fifty of the Revised Statutes
are hereby repealed. (_January_ 19, 1886)."

There was some objection to it at first. It was resisted very
strenuously to the end by Senator Edmunds. But after full
discussion it passed the Senate with few dissenting votes.

In the House Mr. Reed, afterward Speaker, appealed without
success to the political feeling of his associates, demanding
to know if they would rather have Mr. Bayard, who was then
Secretary of State, than John Sherman, who then happened to
be President of the Senate, for President of the United States.
But the House, also, by a large majority, passed the measure.

CHAPTER XV
PRESIDENT CLEVELAND'S JUDGES

I earnestly supported William B. Hornblower against the opposition
of Senator Hill, when he was nominated by Mr. Cleveland for
Judge of the Supreme Court of the United States. I was then
on the Judiciary Committee. I made very careful inquiry,
and had reason to believe that the best lawyers in New York
thought highly of him. Judge Gray told me that Mr. Hornblower
had argued a case in the Court not long before, and that as
the Judges walked out Judge Blatchford said to him: "I hope
you have as good a man in your Circuit to succeed you, when
the time comes, as we have in ours in Mr. Hornblower to succeed
me."

I did not, however, support Mr. Wheeler H. Peckham. The newspapers
circulated the story extensively that--to use the phrase of
one of them--I "led the opposition." That was not tr