When the Know-Nothing party, so called, carried the state in 1855, one of their first acts was to overthrow the entire judicial system of the state, by repealing the acts creating it, and to erect a Siamese-double-headed-partisan one upon its ruins. The system proved expensive and became odious, not only to the entire Democratic party, but to the bar and influential class, irrespective of party relations, and to potential forces in the then Republican party. In 1859, Mr. Bryant devised the system, which, with a brief exception, has been in force to the present time. It was carried after an intensely bitter contest. He made up the committee on the judiciary, to whom the bill was referred. It consisted of ten members, four of whom were Democrats headed by the veteran Quincy, five radicals, and one conservative Republican. Two of the six were for the bill and one was on the fence. The moss-backs, politicians, and lobbyists swarmed, and great efforts were made to defeat it. The four Democrats on the committee at first voted for their own bill, and then notified the friends of the new one that on the test vote they should give them a solid support, which would enable them to bring an affirmative report into the house. Caucuses were held almost every night of actual session to hold the timid ones in line, and prevent their yielding to the great pressure to which they were subjected. An incident occurred during his speakership in 1859, which illustrates Mr. Bryant's readiness, courage, and political forecast. The theory that it was the right of every state and everybody in it to nullify the laws of congress whose constitutionality had been affirmed by the federal supreme court was much more popular in the North then than it became after the election of Mr. Lincoln. Lengthy petitions headed by A. T. Foss, A. Folsom, and Stephen Thayer, "praying for the enactment of a law that no person held as a slave shall be delivered up within this state," were presented. They were referred, as a matter of course, to the committee on the judiciary. Parker Pillsbury, Elder Foss, Dr. Hawks, and others appeared for the petitioners at the hearing, and made eloquent speeches in support of their petition. They had the candor, courage, and directness which characterized the old-time Abolitionists. They did not attempt to deceive the committee or any one else, but avowed that their purpose was by the bill proposed to array the state against the general government. The hearing closed. The four Democrats voted against the bill, and the chairman with flushed face demurred at such legislation; but five out of the six Republicans voted for the bill, and without a word of warning it was reported to the house by a party vote. It was read the first time without objection, and upon a division was ordered to a second reading by a vote of one hundred and thirty-four to one hundred and one. Mr. Bryant called Mr. Parker of Lempster--since a