couldn't go to the Senate or leave the Governorship, if I wanted to, before March, of 1877 the year after the Centennial, so that the people of Iowa would still have the benefit of all the beauty that I have at the Centennial. [Repeated laughter.] But about my want

ing or not wanting to go to the Senate I shall make no promises. If I did it might be as it was with the Governorship. I said I did not want and would not take that; but I am the Republican party's candidate for it and I do not intend any more to say what office I will take and what I will not."

With this lengthy introduction, the candidate proceeded with the formal part of his speech, in which he discussed the attitude of the Republican party on the great issues of the day. Just at the close he returned once more to the temperance question, and advised the prohibitionists to remain in the Republican party. "You are no doubt as honest as you are earnest, and I for one believe that you are", he declared. "It is right, too, to be progressive, radical, and advanced. But have a care that you do not get so far ahead of public opinion that you will get out of sight of the great body of the people altogether, and be lost. (Applause.) So far, indeed, that you cannot even be heard. (Applause.) ''532

During the next six weeks Kirkwood toured

the State on a vigorous campaign of speechmaking. To be sure there was lacking much of the picturesqueness which characterized the joint debates between Kirkwood and Dodge in 1859. The railroads also made it possible to get from place to place with greater comfort and expedition than in the days when candidates must depend almost entirely on stage lines and private conveyances. But the candidate addressed the people with much of his old magnetism and earnestness in a great many towns from one end of the State to the other. The result was that at the election held on October 12th he received over thirty-one thousand more votes than did his opponent, Shepherd Leffler.533

The third inauguration of Samuel J. Kirkwood as Governor of Iowa occurred in the opera house in Des Moines on January 13, 1876. After the officers-elect had entered the hall and taken the seats assigned to them the Capital City Band played "Hail to the Chief". Rev. J. W. Murphy then offered prayer and the band played "The Mocking Bird". Thereupon the oath of office was administered to the newly elected officers and Governor Kirkwood delivered his inaugural address.534

Because this was the centennial year, the Governor dwelt at length on the progress of the Nation during the preceding century and of

Iowa since the coming of the first settlers. He had very little advice to offer the General Assembly in the way of a program for legislation, except to suggest the need of reform in criminal procedure and to recommend railroad rate regulation, including the creation of a railroad commission. The needs of the State and its various institutions had already been set forth by his predecessor.535

Governor Kirkwood's third period of service as chief executive of Iowa was brief and comparatively uneventful. Perhaps the mere

routine of the office had increased in volume during the twelve years since he last sat in the Governor's chair. But with his memories of the strenuous days during the war he must have felt that his duties were very light.536 A year passed, with almost nothing of importance to be recorded in the executive journal. Then on the first day of February, 1877, there was inscribed this record: "Upon this day, Samuel J. Kirkwood, having been elected a senator of the United States for six years from the fourth day of March, vacated the office of Governor of the State of Iowa, whereupon, in accordance with the constitution, Joshua G. Newbold, the lieutenant governor, assumes the discharge of the duties of the office of Governor."'537

XXIX

SENATOR IN HIS OWN RIGHT

THE nomination of Kirkwood for Governor in June, 1875, did not banish his aspirations for the senatorship: it merely postponed his active efforts in that direction. There was newspaper discussion of the senatorial question throughout the period of the State campaign; but the candidate centered his energies on the race for the governorship.

October 12th, the day of the State election, however, marked the beginning of a new campaign. "When the smoke of the contest has cleared away," wrote Jacob Rich on the fifteenth, "we must canvass the condition of the new battle field. ''538 That the canvass was thorough is shown by the fact that the candidate received fully three hundred letters during the last three months of the year 1875 bearing on the senatorial contest. Chief among the Governor's supporters were Jacob Rich, J. N. Dewey, E. R. Kirk, Caleb Baldwin, and George G. Wright. These men and others labored earnestly in Kirkwood's behalf. Members of the legislature were interviewed or letters were

written to them in efforts to secure a promise of their votes. The Governor was kept informed of the prospects and supplied with more advice than he could well use.

Senator Allison's attitude was one subject on which there was difference of opinion. E. R. Kirk and George D. Perkins wrote from Sioux City expressing the belief that Kirkwood had been nominated for Governor in order to defeat him for Senator, and that Allison had a part in the plan. They warned the Governor that Allison and Harlan were now working hand in hand to secure the latter's return to the Senate. Caleb Baldwin likewise seems to have been doubtful of the Dubuque Senator's support. "I have had a talk with Allison," he wrote about the middle of December, "he says he is all right for you, but is tied. I told him you were not tied when you were asked to aid him. This he admitted freely." Jacob Rich, however, denied that Allison was opposed to Kirkwood: he was "simply letting the thing alone personally. ''539

Any fears which Kirkwood himself may have had on this point must have disappeared after reading a letter from Allison written on December 19th. "I felt quite sure that the apprehension of some of your friends possibly somewhat shared in by yourself, that I would or was forming alliances in another direction