FENNER FERGUSON. Dec. 7, 1857 to Mar. 3, 1859. Fenner Ferguson, who was appointed Chief Justice October 12, 1854, was elected delegate to Congress August, 1857, and was sworn in upon the 7th day of December, 1857. On the 16th day of September, 1857, Bird B. Chapman, who had been a candidate for re-election, served notice of contest. It appears that there had been four candidates before the people, and the votes were distributed as follows: Fenner Ferguson, 1,642; Bird B. Chapman, 1,559; Benjamin P. Rankin, 1,241; John M. Thayer, 1,171. After one-half the time had elapsed for the taking of testimony, the contestant served notice November 14th, but the member elect had left the Territory for Washington, D. C., the notice being left at his usual place of residence. At the time specified, testimony was taken in the absence of Ferguson or any one by him authorized to act. A person, however, did appear, and informed the contestant, that unless he was allowed to cross-question witnesses, certain Mormons would not testify for the contestant. If Chapman had inaugurated a game of delay, the tables were turned upon him, on the 3rd of December, when Silas A. Strickland, agent for Ferguson, left notice at Chapman's residence for the taking of testimony on the 14th of the month, Chapman being absent from the Territory. As a way out of these complications the committee on elections, April 21, 1858, reported a resolution to the House, to extend the time for taking testimony, which would virtually send the case over to the next session of Congress. That was passed by a vote of ninety-eight to eighty-five. Before this action of the House, January, 1858, the legislature of Nebraska passed joint resolutions, in the name of a large majority of the people, affirming belief in Mr. Ferguson's election and in his "capacity, integrity, fidelity and incorruptibility," and indignantly repelling all foul aspersions cast upon him, for the purpose of prejudicing his right to a seat in Congress. The House of Representatives, feeling that the Nebraska legislature had overstepped the bounds of propriety by attempting to indicate their duty in settling the status of members, on motion, laid the resolutions on the table without printing. Accordingly, additional testimony having been taken, the committee, by a majority, decided in favor of Mr. Chapman; which report was taken up in the House February 9, 1859. Mr. Wilson of Indiana said, in behalf of the contestant: "This whole case turns upon three precincts-Cleveland, Monroe, and Florence." There were but six voters residing in the Cleveland precinct and but five dwellings therein, and yet there were thirty-five votes cast, eighteen or twenty by persons erecting a hotel for the Cleveland Land Company, who voted for the sitting member and whose votes the committee rejected. He charged, further, that in the Mormon precinct of Monroe, where there were forty Mormon voters, and only five other persons residing there, the vote cast was eighty-seven, of which the sitting member, Ferguson, received eighty-three, and contestant one. And that before the polls were formally opened forty votes had been cast, as a large number of men came there at two o'clock in the morning, voted and went away. He said: "In the Monroe precinct appear names which of themselves are prima facie evidence of fraud-Oliver Twist and Samuel Weller." In the Florence precinct, 401 votes were returned, where the polls were kept open three hours later than allowed by law, of which 364 were for the sitting member and four for the contestant. One person voted four times and at least "one hundred persons were unknown to the oldest settlers." MR. WASHBURN: "Was not that man whose testimony you refer to, accused of perjury?" MR. WILSON: "Yes, but the man who accuses him is himself accused of murder." Mr. Wilson charged in addition that none of the officers in these three precincts were sworn by a legal officer, as though they intended fraud from the very start. In justification of the committee's decision, he quoted many precedents for the rejec tion of votes, and though it was late in the Congress, eighteen months after the election, he demanded prompt action, and concluded: "Looking over the elections for the last few years in the Territories, it does seem to me that a certificate of election from a Territory has become almost prima facie evidence of a great fraud committed." The beautiful superstructure erected by the ingenuity of the gentleman from the state of Indiana was adroitly attacked by the wide-awake member from the state of Maine, Mr. Washburn: Mr. Speaker, not only is all this testimony ex parte (taken alone by one party), but a great part of it is composed of affidavits, sworn to before a notary public who, the gentleman says, has no right to administer an oath in the Territory of Nebraska. And, Sir, there is not a single fact upon which he relies for the material points in his case, but what is hearsay. There is not a single fact of importance touching the precincts of Florence and Monroe but what comes from the declarations of third parties. There is not a scintilla of testimony here which is not of that character; whereas the rebutting testimony is that of witnesses who lived within the precinct, and who were sworn and crossexamined and stated facts within their knowledge. The sitting delegate did not see fit to rely upon the evidence of the runners and agents of the contestant, men who lived in Omaha and could know nothing certain; but he went to Florence and to Monroe and to Cleveland where the facts transpired. He took the testimony of the men, of all others in the world, who knew exactly all the facts in the case. In reply to Davis of Maryland, Mr. Washburn said: The gentleman piles up precedents as high as Olympus, may they not be in Nebraska, as well as anywhere? [Laugh- After Mr. Washburn had examined precedents and testimony, he was followed by Mr. Boyce of South Carolina, who stated that formerly the law in Nebraska did not close the polls at 6 P. M.; that the young men working at Cleveland Hotel building made their homes wherever they found work; that there were nearer one hundred than merely forty resident voters at Monroe and that fifteen votes were cast at Florence after six o'clock. Many other members participated in the discussion, and when it was closed, "confusion so confounded" led to an effort to declare the seat vacant, and finally a compromise laid the whole subject on the table, leaving Ferguson in the chair; and the day before the session and Congress closed, a resolution passed awarding Chapman six thousand dollars, salary and mileage. Thus endeth the second contest. From the number of bills introduced and arguments made before the committees on Public Lands, Indian Affairs, Judiciary, Public Buildings, and others, there is every reason to believe that the legislature did not overestimate the "capacity, integrity, and fidelity" of their delegate. EXPERIENCE ESTABROOK. Oct. 11, 1859 (election) to May 13, 1860. Mr. Estabrook was born in 1813 in the state of New Hampshire. At the age of forty-two years, in 1855, he settled in the Territory of Nebraska. He was a student of Dickinson College, Pa., and a law student of Chambersburg, in the same state. He graduated in 1839. His time was occupied as a clerk at the Brooklyn navy yard for a short time, as an attorney at Buffalo, N. Y., for one year, and fifteen years at Geneva Lake, Wisconsin. His elections were: Attorney General of Wisconsin, member of the Wisconsin legislature, and member of the Nebraska Constitutional Convention of 1871. His appointments were: Attorney General of Nebraska by President Pierce, 1855, and Commissioner for Codification of Laws of Nebraska, 1871. A good citizen and an honorable lawyer may become his epitaph. On the 18th day of May, 1860, Mr. Campbell of Ohio, from the committee on elections, called up the following resolutions: RESOLVED, That Experience Estabrook is not entitled to the seat as delegate from the Territory of Nebraska to the Thirty-sixth Congress of the United States. RESOLVED, That Samuel G. Daily is entitled to the seat as delegate from the Territory of Nebraska to the Thirty-sixth Congress of the United States. This was a unanimous report, agreed upon alike by Democrats and Republicans. Mr. Estabrook belonged to the former and Mr. Daily to the latter party. The election had taken place on October 11, 1859. The canvassing board gave Mr. Estabrook 3,100 votes and Mr. Daily 2,800, or a majority for Estabrook of 300 votes. Of these 292 were reported coming from Buffalo County, but of that number 238 were cast in Kearney City which is not in the county of Buffalo. Mr. Campbell said: "The testimony discloses the fact that there were not over eight houses, not over fifteen residents, and not one acre of cultivated land, or a |