Hon. T. M. Marquett was born near Springfield, Clarke County, Ohio, in 1831, and graduated from the Ohio University at Athens in 1855 when 24 years of age. Having visited Kansas and Iowa, he made choice of Nebraska as a future home in 1856; in which year he was admitted to the bar.
   After one year's residence in Cass County, he was elected three years in succession to the Territorial House of Representatives; and so well were the voters satisfied with the ability, courage and capacity of the young statesman, that he was called upon to serve them four years in the Council (answering to the State Senate) subsequent to 1860.

   To prevent confusion of facts relative to the first election to Congress, in Nebraska, under the State Constitution in 1866, it should be remembered that it took place during the 39th Congress while Mr. Hitchcock was territorial Delegate. Mr. Marquett held toward it a dual position, being elected both as member and delegate. In case admission of the State should occur during that Congress, Mr. Marquett was elected member of the unexpired term. Or, if it remained a Territory during the 40th Congress, he was to serve as a delegate. But if it was found a state in the 40th Congress, Mr. Taffe was elected to meet that emergency. Accordingly when it became a state in the expiring days of the 39th Congress, that retired Mr. Hitchcock, and made Marquett member for two days closing the 39th Congress. Becoming a state also superseded Marquett's election to the 40th Congress, and advanced Mr. Taffe to the membership.

   Mr. Marquett has remained at the bar, in absolute devotion to his profession, from the date of his admission, and has been resident attorney, at Lincoln, for the immense and complicated business of the Burlington & Missouri River Railroad Company since its establishment in Nebraska. Many friends pressed him for United States Senator when Mr. Tipton was re-elected in 1869. Without a stain upon his professional honor, his name stands high upon the roll of the State's most cherished and honored lawyers.
   Of his spoken eloquence, upon the stump and at the bar, but little has been recorded, for an utter neglect of his intellectual progeny has been the characteristic of a modest and fearlessly independent personality.

   In the most noted trial of the State in which Mr. Marquett was an attorney, in defense of Gov. Butler, he closed a most elaborate and powerful speech with the following appeal:

   On the 2nd day of March, 1867, the Globe report of the House proceedings, in Congress, has the following entry:

   The next business before the House was the presentation of certain resolutions, affirming the refusal of ten states lately in rebellion, to adopt the 14th Amendment to the Constitution; and that as long as they continued to refuse its adoption they would not be entitled to representation in the House; and refusal long persisted in would merit more stringent conditions.
   The object of the amendment in question was to define citizenship, and it declared all persons born or naturalized in the United States to be such and equally entitled to the protection of the laws. This, of course, included all the emancipated slaves. It also provided a national penalty for a State's denying any one the right to vote, "on account of race or color or previous condition of servitude." It also excluded certain participants in the rebellion from seats in Congress and from other positions, and declared the sanctity of the national debt. Next came the very elaborate veto message of President Johnson, of a bill "To provide for the more efficient government of the rebel states." The question was, "Shall the House pass the bill, the President's objections to the contrary notwithstanding?"
   Up to this time, the voice of the State of Nebraska had never been uttered upon a recorded vote; but upon sustaining a ruling of the presiding officer, Mr. Marquett broke the silence by voting "Aye," and did the same on Mr. Blaine's motion to suspend the rules, that the bill might be carried over the veto. And then, of course, on the final vote he was found with the constitutional majority of 135 against 48; and the law was passed and Ne-

braska placed squarely upon the platform of the Republican Congressional reconstruction, "amid thunders of applause on the floor and in the galleries." Again, during the same day, came another veto message, of "A bill to regulate certain civil offices," which was so conspicuous, finally, in the impeachment of Andrew Johnson; and once more Mr. Marquett voted in the affirmative on its passage. Another affirmative vote of much value was upon the joint resolution to enable the United States to participate in the Universal Paris Exposition of 1867. But the last time he responded to the roll call was to suspend the rules and instruct a committee to report a bill to reduce members' salaries, and before the result could be announced, the hour of adjournment having come, the Speaker, Mr. Colfax, delivered his valedictory address, proclaiming the inexorable fact, "As these parting words are said, another Congress wait for our seats." The seat occupied by Mr. Marquett for two days was at once labeled for John Taffe, of Dakota County, who was elected to the 40th Congress; and in the selfsame hour Senators John M. Thayer and T. W. Tipton put on the robes of office in the chamber at the other end of the Capitol. Had Mr. Marquett been elected to the 40th Congress as a member he would have made an efficient and popular representative. Of his ability his constituents had ample evidence in his career in the territorial legislature, and at the bar and upon the hustings during the years of slavery aggression, Civil War, and the earlier period of reconstruction. One can easily learn the value of first things and events by turning to the pages of the Illustrated History of Nebraska, where mingle in prodigal profusion records of first arrivals, marriages, births, deaths, erection of temples, and society organizations and especially the manners of those who landed from her "Mayflower" and first pressed her "Plymouth Rock."
   Accordingly, when the subject of this sketch shall have passed his "three score years and ten," bedecked with legal laurels, fellow citizens, proud of the splendid progress of a reconstructed government, will cherish the consecrated first State vote.

   Hon. John Taffe landed in Nebraska and settled in Dakota County in 1856, in the 29th year of his age, having been born in Indianapolis in 1827. His early instruction was received in the common school and academy and became the foundation of a legal education.
   Two years after his arrival he was elected to the Territorial House of Representatives and in 1860 we find him presiding over the Council, answering to the State Senate.
   In 1862 he was commissioned Major of the Second Nebraska Cavalry, and during a 15 months' service, was with General Sully's expedition against the Indians, in which the Second Nebraska under Col. Furnas received the hearty commendation of the general commanding.
   Several times having received votes in congressional conventions he was finally nominated and elected a member of the 40th, 41st and 42nd Congress, in the years 1866, 1868 and 1870. After leaving Congress he was Receiver of Public Moneys in the U. S. Land Office at North Platte, Lincoln County.
   On the occasion of his death in 1884, in an obituary notice of him in the Historical Transactions of the State Society, we have the following:

   The increased votes cast at the several dates of Mr. Taffe's three elections show the growth of population; being 8,922 in 1866, 15,042 in 1868, and 20,342 in 1870, while his majorities, first of 748, and second of 2,406, and third of 4,408, indicate the growth of the Republican party.
   At the same time his competitor in each canvass was a man of acknowledged ability, of unblemished character, and established citizenship. First, A. S. Paddock, since U. S. Senator; then A. J. Poppleton, in the highest degree an ornament of the Omaha bar; and third, Judge George B. Lake, after Chief Justice of the State Supreme Court.
   In the election of Mr. Taffe there were two points in the State's favor relative to a faithful service; the first arising from the fact that her representative possessed a legal education, and the second, that he had legislative experience, and practice in the application of parliamentary law. But as to any sudden acquisition of reputation in the new arena of action, the chances were decidedly against the incumbent, for the spirits that had raised the storm were determined to ride the waves; and already the prow of the Impeachment Steamer was facing the Senate in the case of President Andrew Johnson, floating from her masthead, for the enlightenment of all new comers. "Vessels large may venture more; but little boats should keep near shore." In addition to this the new member's associations were of Territories, Lands and Indians, all intimating soil, with no "distance to lend enchantment to the View." While he never attempted to be offensively aggressive, his sympathies were all on the side of the harassed and exposed emigrants from Indian raids and plunderings, and hence he had to meet the popular clamor in behalf of the "noble red man."

   With great perseverance he tried to secure an amendment to an appropriation bill, to the effect that where members of a tribe went upon the "war-path," annual payments should be made only pro rata to those remaining peaceable. To the chairman of the Indian Committee he said: "If an Indian goes into a white man's stable, in broad daylight, and takes away a horse, while the government is paying an annuity to that tribe, I would like to know what remedy the white man has under the law."
   Mr. Shanks of Indiana having explained that if application were made to the Interior Department within three years the claim could be settled, Mr. Taffe continued: "I submit, with due respect to the gentleman, that, as a matter of law, he is entirely mistaken. I hold that to-day, if there are a thousand Indians in a tribe, nine hundred and ninety-nine of whom are on the 'war-path,' they can commit depredations and still receive their annuity from the Government under existing laws; and no white man has any remedy for any of their depredations."
   On a subsequent day he said:

   The amendment was voted down. In answer to Mr. Farnsworth, of Illinois, he said:

   Mr. Taffe's fidelity to the work of the Committee on Territories, of which he was chairman in the 42d Congress, and his general reputation as an intelligent worker on the committees, caused Mr. Dawes, of Massachusetts, to give him an unmerited compliment and mistaken criticism, as follows:

   Recurring on another occasion to Indian Affairs, he said:

   In those days of fleecing the government, when robbery was the rule and honesty the imaginary exception, we find him ventilating the conduct of mail contractors.

   In the House, February 27th, 1871, Mr. Taffe offered an amendment to an appropriation bill increasing the amount from $25,000 to $50,000 for continuing the construction of a United States Court House and Postoffice in the city of Omaha.

   After an adroit and eloquent argument by Mr. Van Wyck, of New York, in behalf of Omaha and the appropriation, the amendment was agreed to, much to the delight of Mr. Taffe and his grateful constituents.

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