Chapter VI

Seward Summons Republican Leaders to Washington to Aid
Their Party in Speakership Struggle.—Horace Greeley,
Thurlow Weed and James Watson Webb Repair to the
Seat of Government.—Alexander H. Stephens, John Kelly
and Howell Cobb, with Stephen A. Douglas, Lewis Cass,
C. C. Clay and Other Democrats Oppose the Republicans.—Kelly
Names Aiken for Speaker.—Aiken would have
Defeated Banks but for the Blunder of a Democrat.—Banks
Chosen Speaker.—A Stormy Period in Congress.—Sketch
of William H. Seward.—A Historic Quarrel.—It
Destroys the Whig Party.—James G. Blaine, in his
Recent Work, Fails to Mention this Quarrel.—Its
Momentous Consequences.—Fillmore and Seward, Taylor
and Preston.—A Death at the White House Leaves Seward
and Scott Amid the Ruins of the Whig Party, and
Places the Sceptre in Fillmore’s Hand.—Seward Founds
the Republican Party.—Election of Banks Places Seward
again in the Ascendant.—The Stormy Days of 1855-60.—Democratic
Weakness.—Its Causes.—Impracticables.—Dissipation
in Congress.—Fire-Eaters.—Altercations and
Fist Fights in the House.—Sharp Debate between John
Kelly and Humphrey Marshall.—Both Get Angry.—A
Collision Avoided.—Kelly’s Popularity in the House.—Devoted
Friendship of Stephens and Kelly.—Charity and
Benevolence of Each.—An Estimate of Kelly by Stephens
in a Letter to the Author.—Kelly’s Tribute to His Departed
Friend.—Declares the Georgia Statesman the
Purest Man In His Intentions he had ever met. 174