hat party. On the first vote for
speaker, Thomas S. Bocock, of Virginia, the Democratic candidate,
received 86 votes, I received 66, Galusha A. Grow 43, and 21
scattering. Mr. Grow then withdrew his name. On the same day John
B. Clark, of Missouri, offered this resolution:

"Whereas certain Members of this House, now in nomination for
speaker, did indorse and recommend the book hereinafter mentioned,

"_Resolved_, That the doctrine and sentiments of a certain book,
called 'The Impending Crisis of the South--How to meet it,' purporting
to have been written by one Hinton R. Helper, are insurrectionary
and hostile to the domestic peace and tranquility of the country,
and that no Member of this House who has indorsed and recommended
it, or the compend from it, is fit to be speaker of this House."

In the absence of rules, Mr. Clark was allowed to speak without
limit and he continued that day and the next, reading and speaking
about the Helper book. John A. Gilmer, of North Carolina, offered
as a substitute for the resolution of Mr. Clark a long preamble
closing with this resolution:

"_Therefore resolved_, That, fully indorsing these national
sentiments, it is the duty of every good citizen of this Union to
resist all attempts at renewing, in Congress or out of it, the
slavery agitation, under whatever shape and color the attempt may
be made."

A motion was made to lay both resolutions on the table, and was
lost by a tie vote of 116 yeas and 116 nays. In the absence of
rules a general debate followed, in which southern Members threatened
that their constituents would go out of the Union. The excitement
over the proposition to compile a political pamphlet, by F. P.
Blair, an eminent Democrat and slaveholder, from a book called "The
Impending Crisis" written and printed by a southern man, seemed so
ludicrous that we regarded it as manufactured frenzy. After John
S. Millson, of Virginia, a conservative Democrat, who was opposed
to the introduction of the Clark resolution, had exhibited unusual
feeling, I said:

"I have until this moment regarded this debate with indifference,
because I presumed it was indulged in for the purpose of preventing
an organization. But the manner of the gentleman from Virginia,
my respect for his long experience in this House, my respect for
his character, and the serious impression which this matter seems
to have made upon his mind, induce me to say a few words. I ask
that the let