Whoever attempts to write history for the people of Nebraska, or sketch the career of prominent citizens, meets with many impediments. So young is the State, that many of the actors are still in stage costume, and extremely sensitive as to any criticism upon the performers or the play. Scenes that were thrilling to them and heralded as tragic, divested of their surroundings may innocently by strangers be classed as comical.
   An eloquent author once said: "Every attempt to present on paper the splendid effects of impassioned eloquence, is like gathering up dewdrops, which appear jewels and pearls on the grass, but run to water in the hand the essence and the elements remain, but the grace, the sparkle, and the form are gone." And so when the writer erects a statue upon the historic page and exclaims, "Behold the man!" the disappointed reader may demand, "What of the electric current that warmed the heart, illumined the eye, and flushed the cheek; what of the hopes that impelled, the fears that retarded, the placidity or turbulence that dominated the inner life?" In spite of all hindrances and discouragements, with an apology to the "old settler," and a salutation to the new-comer and his juvenile family, the writer enters upon the theme, Nebraska in Congress.
   Her first appearance before the government was as a very diminutive, nameless infant in arms, when in April, 1803, France, by treaty, gave her mother Louisiana away, in marriage, to "Uncle Sam." In 1804 Louisiana was erected into two territories, called Orleans and District of Louisiana, and provision was made for

the formation of a State Constitution for the Territory of Orleans whenever the population reached 60,000. Having acquired the. specified amount in 1810, an Enabling Act was passed in 1811, and in 1812 the Territory of Orleans with the name of Louisiana was admitted into the Union as a state; leaving the balance of the purchase for future disposal.
   The Louisiana purchase cost the United States $11,250,000; and such an amount due the citizens of the United States, from France, as should not exceed $3,750,000.
   It was bounded north by the British possessions, south by Mexico, and west by the Rocky Mountains, and is to-day included in the states of Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, North and South Dakota, and parts of Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho.
   The name of Louisiana was changed to Missouri Territory in 1812, and later the southern part became the Territory of Arkansas. The necessary steps being taken, a part known as Missouri be-came a state June, 1821. As Missouri was coming in as a slave state, the free states demanded "a setoff," hence the Missouri Compromise was enacted, to quiet "slavery agitation forever," and this, when ruthlessly repealed in the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, precipitated the "death to slavery forever" struggle. By that notable act, all new states subsequently formed north of parallel of thirty-six degrees and thirty minutes, dividing the Louisiana Purchase, should come in free or slave, as the people might determine. And so a protecting barrier was erected between Nebraska and slave territory for a term of thirty-three years, ending in 1854.
   This same line was extended through Texas, under certain conditions, on her admission to the Union in 1845. In 1850, when the Union was endangered by the fiery discussion over the admission of California as a free state, the doctrine of non-intervention as to slavery was affirmed; and when it was enacted in the organic law of Nebraska that the Missouri Compromise was "inoperative and void," and slavery was a question exclusively for the people to settle, Senator Benton of Missouri declared the

statement was "a stump speech injected into the belly of the bill." Had Nebraska then been as far south as Kansas, border warfare would have desolated her plains, murdered citizens, and laid homes and cities in ashes.
   Nebraska was introduced to congress, by name, in 1844, when a bill to define her boundaries was presented to the House of Representatives. In 1854 the step-daughter was considered of sufficient age to commence superintending her future estate, under the directions and instructions contained in a law of congress denominated the Organic Act.

   In order to "set up housekeeping" in accordance with the customs and manners of the elder sisterhood, a selection of an agent, in that behalf, was made on the 12th day of December, 1854. The student of history will remember that Napoleon Bonaparte was a prime factor in behalf of France in Mr. Jefferson's negotiations for Louisiana, and the reader of the annals of Nebraska notes the fact that Napoleon B. Giddings, of Missouri, was her first delegate in Congress.
   The election took place seven months from the date of the Organic Act of May 30th, 1854. Voting precincts had been designated at twelve places in eight counties adjacent to the Missouri River. Of 800 votes, Mr. Giddings received 377, which was a majority over any one candidate's vote, though a minority of the whole number cast. On the 5th day of January, 1855, just twenty-four days after the election, the Congressional Globe has the following entry:

   The term for which he was elected was to expire on the ensuing 4th of March, within about two months. A few days before the advent of Mr. Giddings to the House, Mr. Mace of Indiana introduced a bill modifying the Kansas-Nebraska law, and re-enacting the Missouri Compromise act to protect Nebraska from slavery, and for the admission of Kansas as a free state, which failed to pass. Hon. Thomas Hart Benton of Missouri, formerly Senator, having to be absent for a few days, left a short speech to be read for him by a colleague, in

which he deprecated the opening up of the slavery discussion on general principles, but especially for fear of retarding emigration, which was so desirable to aid and encourage the construction of a Pacific railroad. Admitting the border ruffianism of Missouri, he claimed it was the natural product of New England Colonization Societies, from which he had from the first anticipated evil.
   Bills were introduced by Mr. Giddings as follows: To establish post roads; to protect the proprietors of towns in their town sites; to establish land offices; and for surveying, marking, and opening roads. He offered amendments to establish an arsenal in Nebraska, and to allow $50,000 for public buildings. On the 31st day of January he wound up his legislative career by the delivery of his maiden speech. Mr. Giddings said:

   A very short speech of a very short term, and so passed the Napoleon of Nebraska from public observation, returning to his home in Savannah, Missouri.

   The second election for delegate to congress took place November 6, 1855, at which Bird B. Chapman received 380 votes and Hiram P. Bennet 292, according to the returns of the canvassing board. Mr. Bennet instituted a contest which resulted in the presentation of a resolution by the committee on elections declaring that Bird B. Chapman was not entitled to the seat. Each argued his side of the case before the committee, and in open session before the House of Representatives.
   In the house Mr. Stephens of Georgia specially championed the cause of the sitting member, while Washburn of Maine argued in favor of the contestant. It was a contest to reconcile serious irregularities and to eliminate from the count fraudulent votes. Of the two speeches in the house, Bennet's alone appears in the Globe.
   Mr. Bennet complained seriously that after the case had been closed before the committee, and each claimant had been so informed, ex parte testimony had been received and incorporated in the minority report:

   The Hon. Geo. W. Jones, United States Senator from Iowa, having volunteered an endorsement of the veracity of Mr. Sharp, received the speaker's attention:

   The contestant seems from the record, to have been neither a novice in debate, nor timid in attacks. Having parried several thrusts from the keen rapier of the mercurial Stephens, he exclaimed in a tone of exultation, "Mr. Speaker, the gentleman from Georgia has not quite got me yet." Of the sitting delegate, Mr. Chapman, he said:

   It is a source of regret that the speech of Mr. Chapman does not appear in the Globe, as there is no way to restore the oratorical equilibrium. On the final vote there were sixty-three members of the house in favor of unseating Chapman, and sixty-nine opposed--so the contest failed. A resolution finally closed the case, on the 25th of July, 1856, allowing the retiring contestant mileage and per them up to date. The allusions to Mr. Chapman's citizenship are corroborated in Nebraska history.
   Hon. J. Sterling Morton is reported as saying of the first election for delegate in Congress, December 12, 1854:

   In order to parry the point of this truthful charge, be it remembered that this was prior to legislation in Nebraska. Mr. Bennett had not only "come to stay," but was a member of the legislature from Otoe County in 1854 and again in 1859, and was justified in regarding Bird B. Chapman as a Bird of passage.
   7

   Fenner Ferguson, who was appointed Chief Justice October 12, 1854, was elected delegate to Congress August, 1857, and was sworn in upon the 7th day of December, 1857.
   On the 16th day of September, 1857, Bird B. Chapman, who had been a candidate for re-election, served notice of contest. It appears that there had been four candidates before the people, and the votes were distributed as follows: Fenner Ferguson, 1,642; Bird B. Chapman, 1,559; Benjamin P. Rankin, 1,241; John M. Thayer, 1,171. After one-half the time had elapsed for the taking of testimony, the contestant served notice November 14th, but the member elect had left the Territory for Washington, D. C., the notice being left at his usual place of residence. At the time specified, testimony was taken in the absence of Ferguson or any one by him authorized to act. A person, however, did appear, and informed the contestant, that unless he was allowed to cross-question witnesses, certain Mormons would not testify for the contestant. If Chapman had inaugurated a game of delay, the tables were turned upon him, on the 3rd of December, when Silas A. Strickland, agent for Ferguson, left notice at Chapman's residence for the taking of testimony on the 14th of the month, Chapman being absent from the Territory.
   As a way out of these complications the committee on elections, April 21, 1858, reported a resolution to the House, to extend the time for taking testimony, which would virtually send the case over to the next session of Congress. That was passed by a vote of ninety-eight to eighty-five. Before this action of the House, January, 1858, the legislature of Nebraska passed joint resolutions, in the name of a large majority of the people, affirming belief in Mr. Ferguson's election and in his

"capacity, integrity, fidelity and incorruptibility," and indignantly repelling all foul aspersions cast upon him, for the purpose of prejudicing his right to a seat in Congress. The House of Representatives, feeling that the Nebraska legislature had overstepped the bounds of propriety by attempting to indicate their duty in settling the status of members, on motion, laid the resolutions on the table without printing. Accordingly, additional testimony having been taken, the committee, by a majority, decided in favor of Mr. Chapman; which report was taken up in the House February 9, 1859.
   Mr. Wilson of Indiana said, in behalf of the contestant: "This whole case turns upon three precincts--Cleveland, Monroe, and Florence." There were but six voters residing in the Cleveland precinct and but five dwellings therein, and yet there were thirty-five votes cast, eighteen or twenty by persons erecting a hotel for the Cleveland Land Company, who voted for the sitting member and whose votes the committee rejected. He charged, further, that in the Mormon precinct of Monroe, where there were forty Mormon voters, and only five other persons residing there, the vote cast was eighty-seven, of which the sitting member, Ferguson, received eighty-three, and contestant one. And that before the polls were formally opened forty votes had been cast, as a large number of men came there at two o'clock in the morning, voted and went away. He said: "In the Monroe precinct appear names which of themselves are prima facie evidence of fraud--Oliver Twist and Samuel Weller." In the Florence precinct, 401 votes were returned, where the polls were kept open three hours later than allowed by law, of which 364 were for the sitting member and four for the contestant. One person voted four times and at least "one hundred persons were unknown to the oldest settlers."

   Mr. Wilson charged in addition that none of the officers in

these three precincts were sworn by a legal officer, as though they intended fraud from the very start. In justification of the committee's decision, he quoted many precedents for the rejection of votes, and though it was late in the Congress, eighteen months after the election, he demanded prompt action, and concluded: "Looking over the elections for the last few years in the Territories, it does seem to me that a certificate of election from a Territory has become almost prima facie evidence of a great fraud committed."
   The beautiful superstructure erected by the ingenuity of the gentleman from the state of Indiana was adroitly attacked by the wide-awake member from the state of Maine, Mr. Washburn:

   In reply to Davis of Maryland, Mr. Washburn said:

   After Mr. Washburn had examined precedents and testimony, he was followed by Mr. Boyce of South Carolina, who stated that formerly the law in Nebraska did not close the polls at 6 P. M.; that the young men working at Cleveland Hotel building made their homes wherever they found work; that there were nearer one hundred than merely forty resident voters at Monroe and that fifteen votes were cast at Florence after six o'clock. Many other members participated in the discussion, and when it was closed, "confusion so confounded" led to an effort to declare the seat vacant, and finally a compromise laid the whole subject on the table, leaving Ferguson in the chair; and the day before the session and Congress closed, a resolution passed awarding Chapman six thousand dollars, salary and mileage. Thus endeth the second contest.
   From the number of bills introduced and arguments made before the committees on Public Lands, Indian Affairs, Judiciary, Public Buildings, and others, there is every reason to believe that the legislature did not overestimate the "capacity, integrity, and fidelity" of their delegate.

   Mr. Estabrook was born in 1813 in the state of New Hampshire. At the age of forty-two years, in 1855, he settled in the Territory of Nebraska. He was a student of Dickinson College, Pa., and a law student of Chambersburg, in the same state. He graduated in 1839. His time was occupied as a clerk at the Brooklyn navy yard for a short time, as an attorney at Buffalo, N. Y., for one year, and fifteen years at Geneva Lake, Wisconsin. His elections were: Attorney General of Wisconsin, member of the Wisconsin legislature, and member of the Nebraska Constitutional Convention of 1871. His appointments were: Attorney General of Nebraska by President Pierce, 1855, and Commissioner for Codification of Laws of Nebraska, 1871. A good citizen and an honorable lawyer may become his epitaph.
   On the 18th day of May, 1860, Mr. Campbell of Ohio, from the committee on elections, called up the following resolutions:

   This was a unanimous report, agreed upon alike by Democrats and Republicans. Mr. Estabrook belonged to the former and Mr. Daily to the latter party. The election had taken place on October 11, 1859. The canvassing board gave Mr. Estabrook 3,100 votes and Mr. Daily 2,800, or a majority for Estabrook of 300 votes. Of these 292 were reported coming from Buffalo County, but of that number 238 were cast in Kearney City which is not in the county of Buffalo. Mr. Campbell said: "The testimony discloses the fact that there were not over eight houses, not over fifteen residents, and not one acre of cultivated land, or a

farm house in the neighborhood of Kearney City. Nor was Buffalo County organized." Therefore "the entire vote was rejected as illegal and spurious." All of the spurious votes were given to Estabrook and not one to Daily. The vote of Calhoun County was rejected because it was attached for voting purposes to Platte County, and though having only two families in the northwest and four in the southeast part, had returned thirty-two votes, twenty-eight for Estabrook and four for Daily. Mr. Campbell said:

   In L'Eau-qui-Court County, 128 votes were reported, all for Mr. Estabrook, while a member of the legislature swore that there were only from thirty to thirty-five votes in the county. The names of members of Congress were entered on the poll book as Howell Cobb and Aaron V. Brown, and two messengers who procured a copy of the poll book from the clerk were mobbed by parties who declared, "as they were parties to the fraud, they would never suffer any evidence of it to leave the county." These figures of 128 were reduced to sixty, and a majority of 119 votes were awarded to the contestant on a final adjustment of all the votes cast. In conclusion, Mr. Campbell said:

   Mr. Estabrook desired to make a motion to recommit the ease to the committee. Mr. Campbell said:

   Mr. Gartrell desired the sitting member should have more time, and said:

   Finally, when Mr. Estabrook desired to speak more at length on some other day, and thought he could clear the Territory of charges of fraud, and admitted that "there always is irregularity on the frontier and you ought not to hold the frontiers of the country to the strict rules of law," the House desired him to close his remarks at that time. But when he declined to do so the final question was ordered, and Mr. Daily was sworn in on the 18th of May, 1860. That being the date of the convention that was to nominate Mr. Lincoln, Mr. Estabrook exclaimed, "I thank the House for making me a sacrifice to the gods of the Chicago convention." Thus endeth the third contest.

   Samuel G. Daily of Indiana effected a settlement at Peru, Nemaha County, Nebraska, in 1857; and before the permanent organization of the Republican party in the Territory, was free to avow his utter hostility to the institution of American slavery. One year prior to this, the first National Republican Convention assembled in Philadelphia, Pa., and nominated for president John C. Fremont, and for vice-president William L. Dayton of New Jersey; while a remnant of the old Whig party nominated Ex-President Millard Fillmore of New York. Mr. Daily had thoroughly adopted the doctrines of the platform:

   Ready and willing to do all in his power in aid of these principles, he was elected to the territorial legislature in 1858, and as a delegate in Congress contested the election of Mr. Estabrook in 1859. In 1860 he was a candidate for Congress, subsequent to Mr. Lincoln's nomination, and made a very thorough canvass of the Territory with Mr. Morton, his democratic opponent. In 1862 be succeeded in defeating Judge J. F. Kinney of Nebraska City, and closed a third term in Congress.
   On his retirement, Mr. Lincoln gave him the appointment of deputy collector of the port of New Orleans, where he died in September, 1865.

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