Baxter, and that he must acquiesce.

That this avowal was sincere was shown by a subsequent message to
Congress on the subject, condemning the process by which the Democracy
had vaulted into power. When the dispatch from Washington recognizing
Baxter was received at the Antony House the faithful, while making the
welkin ring, made immediate preparations to take undisturbed possession
of the State House. The march of Governor Baxter and his adherents to
the capital was made, as imposing as had his former exclusion been
humiliating. A band playing inspiring music not unlike "See, the
Conquering Hero Comes," and stepping to the air came an array, led by
General King White, on horseback, with flags flying, animated and
exhilarated with all the pomp and circumstance of a victorious legion,
entered and occupied the building which Brooks and his following,
defeated and depressed, had vacated, in obedience to the President's
mandate. The prospect for their rehabilitation seemed shadowy, but, with
that hope said "to spring eternal in the human breast," they had
resolved to carry their contest to Congress.

It may be properly said of Joseph Brooks, as of Charles II, "His
fault--and no statesman can have a worse one--was that he never saw
things as they really were. He had imagination and logic, but he was an
idealist, and a theorizer, in which there might have been good if only
his theories and ideals had not been out of relation with the hard
duties of a day of storm."

There was opportunity for him to have secured the approval of the Poland
Committee. But the tenacity of his ideal of no concession allowed it to
pass.

CHAPTER XIV.

In 1874 a constitutional convention was called and a new constitution
adopted. At the State convention of the Democratic party for the
nomination of State officers Baxter was the favorite for re-election as
Governor, and probably would have been the choice, had not the more
astute politicians put the United States senatorial "bee in his bonnet,"
which induced a letter, fervid and patriotic, declining the nomination.
Baxter was confiding and honest, but not an adept in the wily ways of
the politician. Augustus H. Garland was elected Governor, and in the
United States senatorial race Baxter was "left at the stand." It was
then, as it oft happens, that--

"God and the soldier all men adore,
In time of war, and not before.
When the war is over and all things righted,
God