verdict in favor of the plaintiff against the defendant for the sum of only twenty dollars. The young woman went home with her character thoroughly vindicated and her reputation restored, and the only one unhappy over the result of the trial appeared to be the attorney for the plaintiff, who was undoubtedly expecting a handsome recovery as the only means of compensating him for his professional work.

From Decatur county I returned home, having learned much of the country and its people, and having made many interesting acquaintances among the members of the bar.

And now I must tell you something of my political career, which properly begins at about this date. I had been made chairman of the county committee of the fast dissolving organization known as the whig party. In the fall of 1854 I was a candidate for re-election as county attorney. We had nominated a county ticket of two candidates for the state senate and four representatives, what we then called the anti-Nebraska whigs. James W. Grimes was the candidate for Governor of the state. The democratic party had passed what was called the "Kansas-Nebraska Bill," containing a clause repealing the Missouri Compromise measure, adopted in 1820, that prohibited slavery and involuntary servitude north of thirty-six degrees and thirty minutes of north latitude in the territories of the United States, acquired by the Louisiana Purchase. This had resulted in the partial disorganization of the democratic party throughout many of the northern states. I had left Kentucky because of my opposition to slavery, and especially to what I regarded as the baleful influence of that institution upon the white population. I had settled in Iowa because it was a free state and because I felt that the opportunities for success in life would be greater than in a slave state. I had observed whilst in Kentucky that fixed conditions of political, social, and business life made the success of the young man, depending only on his own energies and abilities, always doubtful and difficult.

Upon my defeat as prosecuting attorney in 1854, at the suggestion of the members elected to the legislature from Van Buren county I went to Iowa City in their company at the beginning of the session, and through their influence I was elected clerk of the house of representatives of the state of Iowa. I found this position of great advantage and help, not only pecuniarily, but I made the acquaintance of public men of all parties during the session. Afterwards in 1856-7 I was elected secretary of the senate of the state.

In 1854, at the dissolution of the old whig party there existed a political organization in many of the states of the Union called "The Know-Nothings." It was a secret political organization, having for its principal doctrines opposition to the Roman Catholics and to the foreign-born citizens of the United States. I refused to affiliate with this "Know-Nothing" organization for the reason that I did not believe in secret political societies or organizations in this country, and I did not believe in making the religious faith or affiliations of any man a test for office, neither did I believe that anyone should be excluded from the confidence and respect of his fellow men because of the place of his birth. As county chairman of the expiring whig party I issued to the people of Van Buren county a circular stating my position and declining to call any convention to coöperate with the "Know-Nothing" organization. I did this for the further reason that the opposition to the extension of slavery into the territories was becoming every day more and more pronounced in the northern states of the Union, and the nucleus of what was afterwards the republican party had already been formed in many of the northern states.

It may be interesting to you to have the history of how Henry Clay Dean became a democrat, and how a little thing may change the destiny and fortune of a man in this life. In the fall of 1854 the Methodist annual conference for Iowa met at the city of Dubuque. It was the custom at that early day for the members of the conference to become guests of the citizens of the locality where the conference had its meetings. Dean was then a member of the conference, and had been receiving and filling regular appointments as a pastor. At Dubuque resided Honorable George W. Jones, then a democratic United States Senator from Iowa. Jones maintained a good table and was a good liver, and his wife an excellent, hospitable lady. In assigning the members of the conference to the different citizens, Dean was assigned as the guest of Senator Jones and his wife. After the conference had been in session a few days, the "Know-Nothings" having been secretly organized in the city of Dubuque became very active in obtaining the names of the Methodist ministers attending the conference, and in initiating them into their order. Among other names presented and favorably acted upon was that of Henry Clay Dean, my former pastor and friend. After he had been elected and the time appointed for his initiation a few nights hence, one of the over zealous ministers represented to Brother Dean that as he had now been elected a member of the "Know-Nothing" organization it was not proper for him to continue to be the guest of and accept of the hospitality of the wife of George W. Jones, who was a Roman Catholic. Dean was an enormous eater, and the suggestion that he should give up his nice boarding place greatly offended him, and he denounced the suggestion as bigotry and presumption inexcusable. He at once went to Senator Jones and told him of the proposition that had been made to him and the cause of it, and denounced the "Know-Nothing" organization in most uncompromising terms. The Senator was pleased with Brother Dean's zeal in the matter, and induced him on the succeeding Sabbath to preach a sermon on "Know-Nothingism" and to denounce it from the pulpit. Dean was a man of more than ordinary ability, with a wonderful command of language. Upon the adjournment of the conference Senator Jones wrote to Judge Knapp at Keosauqua stating the situation and suggesting that Dean be employed in the political canvass against the "Know-Nothings" that fall, and be encouraged in his opposition to that order. Dean returned to Keosauqua, and I had a long conference with him upon this matter. I knew that he had been engaged several years before that in collecting the most learned and effective arguments in favor of protective tariff as delivered in congress from time to time, especially from whig members from the state of Pennsylvania. I also knew that he had preached some of the bitterest sermons against human slavery that I had ever heard from the pulpit or from any source, and I urged upon him that he could not consistently coöperate with the democratic party because of his views in regard to the tariff and because of his opposition to slavery. I pointed out to him that the organization of the republican party was then proceeding in most of the states and that his feelings, sentiments, and views would be better expressed by the position of that organization; that the "Know-Nothing" party was a mere temporary passion and would effervesce and disappear in a short time, and that his efforts in opposition to them would be wholly unnecessary and gratuitous. But he was too wroth and anxious for his revenge against those who suggested that he decline the hospitality and good dinners of Senator Jones. He accordingly entered the canvass, and that fall there being the election in Virginia in which Henry A. Wise was a democratic candidate for Governor and was opposed by the "Know-Nothings," Dean with letters of recommendation from Jones and Senator Dodge and other leading democrats of Iowa went to Virginia and entered the political canvass in favor of Wise and in opposition to the "Know-Nothings." Wise was elected, and Dean then went to Washington City. With the influence of Dodge and Jones and the Virginia delegation he was elected chaplain of the United States senate, and thereafter, and especially during the Civil War, he made himself