he has been an active comrade in the Grand Army of the Republic, and for three years was commander of the Military order of the Loyal Legion of the District of Columbia. He was elected United States Senator as a Republican to succeed Alvin Saunders, his term commencing March 4th, 1883.

He was re-elected to the senate, without opposition, in 1889, and with exceptional and unprecedented marks of approval from the legislature of Nebraska. His term expired March 3, 1895. In the Senate he has been chairman of the Joint Committee on Printing and an active member of the following committees: Claims, Private Land Claims, Territories, Indian Affairs, Military Affairs, and Rules. Many valuable reports have been made by him from these committees, and he has been a shaping and directing force in legislation of great value relating to claims, the establishment of the private land-claims court, the government of the territories, the admission of new States, pensions to old soldiers, aid to soldiers' homes, laws for the better organization and improvement of the discipline of the United States army and for the improvement and better methods for the printing of the government.

In the second session of the 51st congress, he was elected by the United States Senate as its President pro tempore without opposition, it having been declared by the senate after full debate to be a continuing office.

The following letter antedates Mr. Manderson's second senatorial election.

STATE CAPITOL, LINCOLN, NEB., Jan. 1st, 1889.

Hon. Charles F. Manderson, Washington, D. C.

DEAR SENATOR: The political situation in Washington seems to demand your presence at your post of duty, to look after pending legislation and the interests of the people of this State, which you, in part, so ably represent.

Your honorable and consistent record in public life, your untiring and zealous work in behalf of the Republican party and its principles; your labor for the old soldiers, and the glorious fight you have made for the National Republican cause in the State and Nation, we fully appreciate and desire to thank you.

We further say to you, with all the sincerity that the

human heart can give forth, that while you are thus de-
tained at your post of duty, we will also be at ours and
see to it that you are triumphantly elected to the National
Legislature as your own successor.

Each wishing you a happy and prosperous New Year, we
remain,
Yours obediently,

(Signed by 101 members of the Nebraska Legislature.)

Mr. Manderson was sworn into office, as a senator for Nebraska, on the 3rd day of December, 1883, in the last session of the 48th congress; and was in due time assigned, for committee duty, to those of Private Land Claims, Territories, Transportation Routes to the Seaboard, and Claims.

Having busied himself mostly with the investigation of questions that pertained directly to his own state and region of country, for the space of three months, he was fortunate in the selection of a theme on which to make his first oratorical effort before his deliberate and dignified associates; a theme on which the soldier's patriotism could dominate the lawyer's acquisitions in sustaining a military verdict. He stated the question at issue, as follows: "Adopting the language of the advisory board, it asks that the Congress shall annul and set aside the findings and sentence of the court-martial in the case of Major Gen. Fitz-John Porter and restore him to the position of which that sentence deprived him." His introduction was very conciliatory:

Gentlemen of distinguished ability occupying places at both ends of the capitol, lawyers of great erudition whose reputation is national, soldiers of distinction whose names are "as familiar in our mouths as household words," have spoken and written upon the theme until it seems almost worn threadbare.

The plea of the novitiate for kindly recognition was delicate and beautiful:

Here in the face of the world, for nearly a quarter of a century, has progressed a contest where the stake was dearer than life-a struggle to vindicate impeached honor, to clear smirched loyalty, to brighten tarnished reputation. What wonder is it, then, that the interest continues and that even the fledglings of the senate show desire to record the reasons that prompt their votes for or against this bill?

And then how adroitly "the fledgling's" locality was defined: When the court-martial assembled, in the fall and winter of 1862, with General Hunter as president and Generals Hitchcock, King, Prentiss, Ricketts, Casey, Garfield, and other distinguished military leaders,-I was of the army of the West, far removed from Washington, and where by reason of our distance and the fact that we had usually sufficient on hand to keep us very busy, we knew but little of what was going on in the armies of the East.

But it had become a matter of history that General Grant, and others, had at last joined the advocates of General Porter and in this preliminary skirmish that obstruction must be reduced.

The first article presented to me, and carefully read, was the paper of General Grant, "An Undeserved Stigma," published in the North American Review, and this was followed by the letters of General Grant, Terry, and others; then the defensive pamphlet of Mr. Lord, and the report of the majority of the Committee on Military Affairs of the senate.

But a judge could not rest with the defendant's side of the case alone, and hence Mr. Manderson carefully reviewed the testimony of the United States; and if the banner of General Grant was to lead the Porter procession, there was another likeness, of clear-cut features before which uncovered heads bowed "The experienced lawyer, the sound jurist, the great patriot, the compassionate man-Abraham Lincoln-reviewed the action of the court."

Anxious not to appear ungenerous in anything he said:

I would gladly join the ranks of those who, from a desire to do justice as they see the course of justice, or from motives of mercy as they see it right to be merciful, will take the stain of over twenty years' duration from this appealing old man; but under the facts and law, as I see them, whether this proceeding be one of judicial review or the exercise of clemency, this bill should not pass.

There having been a great asperity in this behalf, and the Nebraska senator desiring to cover no concealed feeling beneath a judicial robe, the following disclaimer was uttered: