17th of October--the invasion
of the State of Virginia by John Brown startled the country, and,
more than all other causes, aroused the southern people to a state
of great excitement, amounting to frenzy. Brown, with a few
followers of no distinction, captured the United States arsenal at
Harper's Ferry, took possession of the bridge which crosses the
Potomac, fortifying it with cannon, stopped trains, cut telegraph
wires, killed several men, and seized many prominent citizens,
holding them as hostages. Wild reports were circulated of a rise
of the negroes in the neighborhood, the uprising accompanied by
all the horrors of a servile war, and a general alarm prevailed
throughout the State of Virginia and the south. The insurrection
was, however, speedily suppressed, mainly by the state militia,
and the few insurgents not killed were captured by United States
marines under Colonel Robert E. Lee, soon afterwards to be commander-
in-chief of the rebel forces in the Civil War.

Brown was tried for murder and executed. This foolish and criminal
invasion was the work of a fanatic who all his lifetime had been
a violent opposer of slavery, and who while in Kansas had participated
more or less in the Osawatamie murders. His son was killed by the
"border ruffians" near his home in Kansas, for which a fearful
revenge was taken upon the murderers. Brown, having always been
an Abolitionist, and being crazed by these events, believed it his
duty to wage a relentless war against slavery, and, with the courage
but shortsightedness of a fanatic, and with the hope of the resistance
of the slaves of the south, undertook this wild scheme to secure
their freedom.

Under such exciting conditions Congress convened on the 5th day of
December, 1859, divided politically into 109 Republicans, 101
Democrats and 27 Americans. No party having a majority, it was
feared by some that the scenes of 1855, when Banks was elected
speaker only after a long struggle, would be repeated. That contest
was ended by the adoption of the plurality rule, but in this case
a majority could not agree upon such a rule, and the only possible
way of electing a speaker was by a fusing of Members until a majority
voted for one person.

It was well understood that the Republican vote would be divided
between Galusha A. Grow and myself, and it was agreed between us
that whichever received a majority of the Republican vote should
be considered as the nominee of t