CONKLING AND FOLGER- 1867-1868 141 



sions immediately after the adjournment of the legislature, 

 and Judge Folger having spoken against this motion, I 

 spoke in its favor and did what I have never done before 

 in my life and probably shall never do again spoke 

 against time. There was no " previous question" in the 

 Senate, no limitation as to the period during which a 

 member could discuss any measure, and, as the youngest 

 member in the body, I was in the full flush of youthful 

 strength. I therefore announced niy intention to present 

 some three hundred arguments in favor of referring the 

 whole matter to the State Constitutional Convention, those 

 arguments being based upon the especial fitness of its 

 three hundred members to decide the question, as shown 

 by the personal character and life history of each and 

 every one of them. I then went on with this series of 

 biographies, beginning with that of Judge Folger him- 

 self, and paying him most heartily and cordially every 

 tribute possible, including some of a humorous nature. 

 Having given about half an hour to the judge, I then took 

 up sundry other members and kept on through the entire 

 morning. I had the floor and no one could dispossess me. 

 The lieutenant-governor, in the chair, General Stewart 

 Woodford, was perfectly just and fair, and although 

 Judge Folger and Mr. Murphy used all their legal acute- 

 ness in devising some means of evading the rules, they 

 were in every case declared by the lieutenant-governor to 

 be out of order, and the floor was in every case reassigned 

 to me. Meantime, the whole Senate, though anxious to 

 adjourn, entered into the spirit of the matter, various 

 members passing me up biographical notes on the mem- 

 bers of the convention, some of them very comical, and 

 presently the hall was crowded with members of the as- 

 sembly as well as senators, all cheering me on. The 

 reason for this was very simple. There had come to be 

 a general understanding of the case, namely, that Judge 

 Folger, by virtue of his great power and influence, was 

 trying in the last hours of the session to force through a 

 bill for the benefit of his district, and that I was simply 



