ghth Congress he was elected by the Unconditional Union party.

Since the adjournment of the thirty-eighth Congress he has been
profoundly concerned in the momentous public questions now pressing for
adjustment, and he did not fail on several fitting occasions to give his
views at length to the public. Nevertheless, he frequently alluded to
his earnest desire to retreat for awhile from the perplexing annoyances
of public life. He had determined upon a long visit to Europe in the
coming spring, and had almost concluded the purchase of a delightful
country-seat, where he hoped to recruit his weary brain for years to
come from the exhaustless riches of nature. When the thirty-ninth
Congress met, and he read of his old companions in the work of
legislation again gathering in their halls and committee-rooms, I think,
for at least a day or two, he felt a longing to be among them. During
the second week of the session he again entered this hall, but only as a
spectator. The greeting he received--so general, spontaneous, and
cordial--from gentlemen on both sides of the House, touched his heart
most sensibly. The crowd that gathered about him was go great that the
party was obliged to retire to one of the larger ante-rooms for fear of
interrupting the public business. A delightful interview among old
friends was the reward. He was charmed with his reception, and mentioned
it to me with intense satisfaction. Little did you, gentlemen, then
think that between you and a beloved friend the curtain that shrouds
eternity was so soon to be interposed. His sickness was of about a
week's duration. Until the morning of the day preceding his death, his
friends never doubted his recovery. Later in the day very unfavorable
symptoms appeared, and all then realized his danger. In the evening his
wife spoke to him of a visit, for one day, which he had projected, to
his old friend, Mrs. S. F. Du Pont, when he replied, in the last words
he ever uttered, "It shows the folly of making plans even for a day." He
continued to fail rapidly in strength until two o'clock on the afternoon
of Saturday, the 30th of December, when HENRY WINTER DAVIS, in the
forty-ninth year of his age, appeared before his God. His death
confirmed the opinion of Sir Thomas Browne, who declared, "Marshaling
all the horrors of death, and contemplating the extremities thereof, I
find not anything therein able to daunt the _courage_ of a _man_, much
less a _well-resolved Christian