The result of the election is a matter of history. Mr. Lincoln received the electoral vote of Iowa by some fifteen thousand majority, as did also every candidate on the republican ticket, including myself. At the close of my first term I was renominated and re-elected without opposition. The duties of my office as Attorney General of the state consisted in advising the Governor and state officers when called upon by either of them for my opinion, and also when requested by that body to give my opinion to the general assembly, also to represent the state in all criminal cases appealed to the supreme court of the state. Our supreme court at that time met twice a year; to-wit, in April and October, in the city of Davenport, Iowa, and my duties required me to attend there during the sessions of the court. The judges of the court, a reporter, and myself, and most of the attorneys visiting the court from time to time, boarded at the Burtis House, an excellent hotel kept by Dr. Burtis at that time. It made up a pleasant party, and it was rather a pleasant episode in my professional life. The only important opinion I was called upon to give to the general assembly was as to the constitutionality of the proposed law providing for the soldiers' vote. The supreme court of Pennsylvania had held a similar statute under their constitution to be unconstitutional and void. I examined the question carefully, because it was one of great importance. So many of our loyal voters in the state were absent from the state as soldiers in the Civil War, and there was a great danger that those who sought to embarrass the prosecution of the war might place in control of our state affairs men inimical to the cause of the Union and nation. I gave an opinion to the legislature that the proposed law was constitutional. It was passed and afterwards sustained by the unanimous opinion of the judges of our supreme court, and from that time forward there was no question about the political status and conduct either of our state legislatures or our representatives in the national congress.