of Illinois, Daniel W. Voorhees of Indiana, and George H. Pendleton and Clement L. Vallandigham of Ohio advocated the cause of Morton on the floor, and Henry L. Dawes, chairman of the committee on elections, very ably conducted the case of Daily. Richardson, who of course had become acquainted with Morton while he "had the misfortune to be governor of Nebraska," as he said in discussing this case, in urging that he be permitted to present his own case to the house, made this confident prophecy as to the future of his young protege:

   I know him. I will say of him that of all the young men in the country, and I am fa-

WILLIAM F. LOCKWOOD
Early judge of the third judicial district of Nebraska

miliar with a very great many of them, he has the greatest intellect and the most promising future. I pass this compliment upon him. I have known him for years, and I have watched him well. Beyond the Ohio river there is not a brighter intellect. Gentlemen, you will hear of him hereafter; mark my words.

   The organic act of the territory provided that "the manner of holding the elections (for delegate to Congress) shall be prescribed by law," and that "the person having the highest number of votes shall be declared by the governor to be duly elected." The election occurred October 9th. Under the law, the governor, the chief justice, and the United States attorney for the territory were the canvassing board. They met to canvass the returns of the general election on the 2d of November, and on their finding that Morton had the highest number of votes Governor Black issued a certificate of election in his favor, November 2, 1860. On the 29th of April, 1861, the governor issued a certificate in favor of Mr. Daily, as follows:

    I, Samuel W. Black, governor of Nebraska, do hereby certify that, at an election held in the said territory on Tuesday, the 9th day of October, 1860, for delegate to congress of the United States for the thirty-seventh congress, Samuel G. Daily was duly and lawfully elected delegate to the said congress; and whereas, after the canvass of the votes at the said election, a certificate of election was given to J. Sterling Morton, he having apparently the highest number of votes, having nominally fourteen votes more than Samuel G. Daily, the only opposing candidate; and it being a fact that one hundred and twenty-two votes were counted to the said J. Sterling Morton in what is called the northern precinct of L'eau-qui-court county, that being the whole number of votes returned and claimed as cast therein at the, election aforesaid.
   And it further appearing conclusively since the date of the said canvass and certificate issued to the said J. Sterling Morton, that the election in the said northern precinct of L'eau-qui-court was a fraud throughout, and should have been rejected and not counted, which would have shown a legal majority of one hundred and eight votes in favor of the said Samuel G. Daily.
   Therefore, I, Samuel W. Black, governor of Nebraska territory, do hereby revoke the certificate of election issued as aforesaid to J. Sterling Morton, as delegate to congress to the thirty-seventh congress, and do certify that Samuel G. Daily was, according to a fair and just count, duly elected as delegate to the thirty-seventh congress of the United States for Nebraska territory.
   In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the great seal of the territory to be affixed.
Witness my hand at Omaha, this 29th day of April, A. D. 1861.
[L. S.] SAMUEL W. BLACK
.
By virtue of this certificate the clerk of the

House, John W. Forney, entered Mr. Daily's name on the roll, and he was seated when the House met in special session on President Lincoln's call, July 4,1861. In January, 1861, after the alleged frauds in L'eau-qui-court and other counties had been thoroughly discussed in the newspapers, Governor Black was called as a witness in the contest case instituted by Daily, and testified as to his own powers and his action in this case as follows:

    The board were unanimously of the opinion that when abstracts of the votes cast were transmitted by the county clerk, we could not in any case go behind his return to inquire into the legality of the election in any precinct or all the precincts of any county, and this decision is precisely the same as the decision of the board in 1859, when Mr. Estabrook and Mr. Daily were candidates, and in 1857, when Judge Ferguson, Mr. Chapman and others, were candidates. Mr. Chapman then insisted that the board should go behind the returns of the county clerks, alleging fraud, etc., which they refused to do. Two of the board had supported him at the election, and it was decided unanimously that under the law of February 13, 1857, the governor had no power except to cast up the votes transmitted by the several county clerks. The decision of the last board was, that notwithstanding certain irregularities in the abstracts of returns transmitted by the clerks, still it was our duty to decide in favor of the franchise, provided the return seemed to be substantially correct.

   Mr. Pendleton, after quoting this testimony in the debate, said:

    And upon the following page of this printed record, when he is called upon to explain the grounds upon which the board of canvassers acted in counting the returns of L'eau-qui-court county, he justifies their action upon the ground that neither the governor alone nor the board of canvassers had any authority to go behind the papers that were placed before them, authenticated by the hand of the clerk and the seal of his county; and that he must have issued the certificate to Morton, and could not possibly have issued it to Daily.

   The following remarkable affidavit which is given with the running comment of Mr. Voorhees as he presented it in his speech shows when and how the second certificate was issued:

   I hold in my hand the affidavit of Mr. Pentland, which will show the character of this case in its legitimate colors. It is as follows:

"District of Columbia, City of Washington, ss:
   "I, Andrew W. Pentland, formerly resident of the territory of Nebraska, but more recently connected with the army of the Potomac, upon my oath depose and say: I am a relative of Samuel W. Black, formerly the governor of Nebraska; that I was at his house in Nebraska City one day in May last, after he (Black) had been removed from the governorship of Nebraska, and Alvin Saunders had been appointed and had arrived in Nebraska, and had gone to Omaha --"
   That was after Governor Black's term of office had expired, after he had ceased to be governor of Nebraska --
   "And that at the private residence of the said Samuel W. Black, at Nebraska City, in the month of May, 1861, in the presence of Samuel G. Daily and Samuel W. Black, I copied for the said Black and Daily a certificate of election to congress which he (Black) then and there in my presence and in Daily's presence, did sign and give to Mr. Daily, first, however, sticking upon the said certificate a green wafer, which had been under the great seal of the territory;"
   I would not vote for any man, I care not what else he would present in the case, who would bedaub and defile his title deed by a transaction of this kind --
   "And the said certificate was made by date to appear to have been issued some time previous, and by Black in his executive capacity of governor of Nebraska.
   "Furthermore this deponent is willing to go before the committee of elections for the House of Representatives of the thirty-seventh congress, and be examined and cross-examined upon all the above subject-matter.
"A. W. PENTLAND.
   "Sworn and subscribed to before me this 4th day of March, A. D. 1862.
"F. I. MURPHY, J. P. [L. S.]"

   Ah, this is not evidence, say the committee. Why not? Under the resolution I have quoted from the extra session, it is clear, legitimate, and proper evidence. But further, if that would not do, Mr. Morton offered to bring the witness himself before the committee in proper person. That was refused, and it is to be observed here that it was not for the want of proper notice.

   But by the 7th of May, 1862, Mr. Daily was able to produce another affidavit from Pentland, dated the 30th of April, 1862, in the course of which he declared:

[NOTE -- Henry A. Koenig was an early miller, lumber man, and banker of Grand Island, Nebraska]

I said, in my affidavit of the 4th of March, that I copied said certificate some time in May last, after he (Black) had been removed from the governorship of Nebraska, and Alvin Saunders had been appointed. I am now quite certain that it was on the 9th of May, 1861, four days before Governor Black removed from the territory. But by saying that it was after he had been removed from the governorship of Nebraska, I did not mean to be understood that he was not then the governor, for I am certain he was; I only intended to say that it was after his removal so far as the appointment of Governor Saunders removed him; but he was the governor up to the time he left the territory, as Governor Saunders had not yet been qualified, nor entered upon the duties of his office -- in fact, I think he arrived at Omaha on the 12th, and Black left on the 13th of May. The original of the certificate was in Governor Black's handwriting, and was not very legible, and the paper was rumpled. I put the same date in the copy as was in the original, and placed a green wafer on it that had been under the seal. Governor Black had such wafers in his possession, and used them when necessary to facilitate business, as his residence was fifty miles from Omaha City, the capital of the territory.
   But an important change in this facile affidavit-maker's fortunes changed his point of view and materially affected his memory. Mr. Richardson explained Pentland's change of attitude thus:

   One or two days after Morton had offered to introduce Pentland as a witness before the committee, the sitting delegate recommended the appointment of that witness as a clerk in one of the departments here. I ask the clerk to read the letter of the secretary of the interior.
   The clerk read as follows:

Department of the Interior,
"April 22, 1862.
   "Sir: In reply to your letter of the 21st instant, I have the honor to inform you that Mr. A. W. Pentland was appointed a temporary clerk in the General Land Office, the 15th March, 1862, on the recommendation of Hon. S. G. Daily, of Nebraska territory. There are no papers on file in the department in behalf of Mr. Pentland.
   "Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
"CALEB B. SMITH,
"Secretary of the Interior.
"HON. W. A. RICHARDSON,
  "House of Representatives."

    Continuing, Mr. Richardson said:

    If you will examine the date of Pentland's affidavit, and the appointment of Pentland by the Secretary of the Interior, upon the recommendation of the sitting delegate, you will find that they occurred within two or three days of each other.

   Mr. Pendleton put this severe construction on Black's action:

    I will not inquire into the arguments which changed the opinion of the governor, nor into the motives of the change. But having seen what was done, I was not surprised to find the sworn testimony of a witness brought before the committee for cross-examination, showing that this second certificate was issued after the man had ceased to be governor of Nebraska; that it was issued from his private residence, although dated at the executive chamber; that it was issued from Nebraska City, although dated at Omaha; that it was verified by an impression of the seal of the territory, which had been fraudulently taken from a paper on which it had originally been rightly put, in order that it might be more fraudulently put on this false and spurious certificate . . . The second certificate was issued in face of the only legal count had. I submit to gentlemen whether they ever heard that one member of a court consisting of three could, at his own residence, in his own chamber, of his own motion, review and reverse the decision that had been made by the whole court? And yet that is what the governor of Nebraska attempted to do in this case -- no, not the governor, he had ceased to be governor then -- but the gentleman who had been governor.
   As to the seal placed on the Daily certificate Mr. Voorhees said:

    I hold in my hand the certificate brought here by the sitting delegate. It was before the committee. I would submit it to any sworn jury of twelve men whether it does not bear upon its face the evidence of forgery. I will submit it to any fair-minded man in the House whether it is not a forgery, not in the name, but a forgery in the seal. I do not ask you to take my assertion, for I have here the evidence. The paper bears upon itself the evidence that the great seal of the territory of Nebraska has been forged and stuck on with the finger, not by the legal stamp. The paper has not the mark of the iron upon it, which constitutes the seal.
   Mr. Dawes himself testified to the culpa-

bility of Black in giving the second certificate:

   I said in the House last July . . . what I am willing to state anywhere, that after the governor of Nebraska had given one certificate to the now contestant he had no authority to give another.
   The hardships and injustice that Morton suffered from Black's fraud upon him were expressed by Voorhees:

    By an unjust, certainly by an unreflecting, vote of the House, Mr. Daily was allowed to take his seat as sitting member; and the man who came here with his certificate -- as good as yours or mine, or that of any man on this floor was turned from the bar of the House and compelled to contest his way back to this Hall, or abandon his clear and legal right to a seat. Now, starting with a proposition of this kind, I generally find, in my transactions with men, that nothing fair follows such a beginning. That is my experience.

   Not the least source of Morton's mortification and hardship was the fact that the issuing of the second certificate was concealed from him until he went to take his seat at the special session of Congress in July, 1861, eight months after he had received his own certificate and four months after his term of office had begun. Said Mr. Dawes. "The gentleman came here with a certificate from the governor precisely like our own, wit out any intimation from anybody that he was not entitled to take the seat."
   Following is Morton's own, account of this part of the case:

   On the morning of the 4th of July last I arrived here to take my seat in this House. I had been duly and legally certificated a member of this House. I had no more suspicion or thought that any other person than myself would be sworn in as delegate from Nebraska than you, Mr. Speaker, had that some other person than yourself would be qualified to represent your district from the state of Pennsylvania . . . Six months or more after the canvassing board had awarded the certificate of election to me, and Governor Black had issued it; three months after the death of Chief Justice Hall, whom the law of the territory made a member of the board of canvassers, and who had acted in that capacity, and concurred in the award of the certificate to me; nearly two months after the term of my office as delegate in congress began, (that is, after the 4th of March, and ostensibly on the 29th of April, 1861), Samuel W. Black, without notifying the district attorney, without a recount of the votes, without notice to me, without the authority of law or precedent, secretly, fraudulently, and perfidiously issued a pseudo certificate to Mr. Daily, and attempted to revoke mine without notifying me. He did this because he hated, and desired to injure me. It was the vengeance of an assassin and a coward wreaked upon one who had, by loaning him hundreds of dollars, saved himself and family from shame and mortification, saved even their family carriage from public auction at the hands of the sheriff. Mr. Black owed me money, and he became indignant because I, after he had enjoyed for three years the use of a few hundred dollars, which he had borrowed to return in three days, pressed him for payment. He owes that money yet, though I may possibly reach a part of it as follows:

" SHERIFF'S SALE
"J. STERLING MORTON
      vs.
"SAMUEL W. BLACK.
   "Notice is hereby given, that by virtue of a special execution to me directed, from the clerk of the district court of Otoe county, Nebraska territory, against the goods, chattels, land, and tenements of Samuel W. Black, defendant, in favor of J. Sterling Morton, plaintiff, I will offer at public sale, to the highest and best bidder on Saturday, the 17th day of May, A. D. 1862, at the hour of ten o'clock, A. M., all the right, title, and interest of the said defendant in and to the following described property, to-wit:

   "The north half of the northwest quarter of section thirteen; and the east half of the south half of the southwest quarter of section twelve, township seven, range nine, east; and south half of the northeast quarter of section twenty-six, town seven, range thirteen, cast of sixth principal meridian, Otoe county, Nebraska territory.
   "Sale to take place on said day in front of the door of the room where the last term of the district court was held in Nebraska City, Otoe county, Nebraska territory.
   "Given under my hand, this 11th day of April, A. D. 1862.
"GEORGE W. SROAT,
"Sheriff of Otoe County, Nebraska Territory.

   It can not be that the House of Representatives would become the coadjutor of an individual in his pursuit of revenge, and I am