Several of the Republican
Senators were among its most zealous advocates. There was
a motion to lay aside the Election Bill which was adopted
by a bare majority--the Democrats voting for it and several
of the Silver Republican Senators, so-called. All but one
of these had signed their names to the promise I have printed.
I never have known by what process of reasoning they reconciled
their action with their word. But I know that in heated political
strife men of honor, even men of ability, sometimes deceive
themselves by a casuistic reasoning which would not convince
them at other times.
The Election Bill deeply excited the whole country. Its
supporters were denounced by the Democratic papers everywhere,
North and South, with a bitterness which I hardly knew before
that the English language was capable of expressing. My mail
was crowded with letters, many of them anonymous, the rest
generally quite as anonymous, even if the writer's name were
signed, denouncing me with all the vigor and all the scurrility
of which the writers were capable. I think this is the last
great outbreak of anger which has spread through the American
people.
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