After James Gordon Bennett’s death, Barnum again advertised in the _Herald_. James Gordon Bennett, the younger, recalling his father’s animosity against Barnum, tried to renew the feud in the pages of the _Herald_. Barnum was in London at the time, and he wrote the new editor: “Young man, I knew you when you rode the hobby-horse which I bought for Tom Thumb, and which your father and mother brought you to see, and I have a right to give you some advice.” What that advice was Barnum never said, but the _Herald_ soon forgot its feud and praised the circus as much as its contemporaries. Four months after the Museum fire Barnum reopened his Museum in a granite building at Broadway and Prince Street, with new curiosities gathered from all over the country. After one term in the Connecticut legislature, Barnum intended to return to private life, but one of the directors of the New York and New Haven Railroad remarked that if he could help it, Barnum would not be in the next legislature. Barnum accepted the challenge, and he was reëlected in 1866. He was nominated for Congress by the Republicans in 1867. His Democratic opponent was William H. Barnum, not a relative, who was the political boss of Fairfield County, the district for which they were nominated. During the summer of 1867 Barnum entertained many political guests at his Bridgeport home, among whom were the Speaker of the House of Representatives and several United States senators. It is likely that he foresaw for himself a career of usefulness and notoriety as a federal law-maker and national entertainer. The campaign was highly competitive, for both Barnums had advantages which appealed to large numbers of their constituents. P. T. Barnum sent his opponent a challenge to debate the issues of the day on one evening each week until election, in order that the people might be enabled to vote understandingly. He promised in his letter to conduct his part of the debate with fairness, consideration, and proper respect for his adversary. But W. H. Barnum was one of the most astute politicians in the state of Connecticut, and he apparently realized that to appear on the same platform with P. T. Barnum, the famous lecturer and entertainer, would be to practise bad psychology, for he declined the kind offer. It was rumored that votes were being bought at wholesale by the Democratic Barnum, and a loyal Republican wrote P. T. Barnum, asking if he did not intend “to fight fire with fire.” Barnum grasped the opportunity of publishing the request and his reply in the _Bridgeport Standard_ and the _New York Tribune_, two newspapers which always remained friendly to his interests and his activities. His reply is characteristic because of its sonority and righteous invective: