Haskin be defeated, and an administration candidate be elected, every post-office and every office of the Government would be illuminated." An incident in Congress, of a startling nature, in the early part of 1860, brings to notice the continued, determined and ardent part taken, after his re-election, by the representative of Westchester County in the fulfilment of his duties. While addressing the House Mr. Haskin accidentally let fall from the breast pocket of his coat a loaded revolver. On the question of the propriety of carrying this weapon into the House, not only in Congress, but among his constituents and throughout the country, warmest discussions followed. The e.xplanation given was preparation for self-defense in the unprotected neighborhood in Washington, in which Mr. Haskin resided, in which much lawlessness prevailed.

Many years have passed since this incident, but, taken in connection with the Rebellion which soon followed and the tragic and dastardly scenes in it, it illustrates the dangers in public life at the time and the unflinching determination of those calle;l to mingle in the discu.-isions introductory to the strife.

We come now to the stirring canvass and clecti<in in which Mr. Lincoln was carried into the Presidential chair, and when the party which had so long,

GENERAL HISTORY FROM 1783 TO 18()0.

almost continuously, conducted the govcrmuent, passed into that long exile which has just been terminated. At the State Convention of the Democratic party, in which Thomas Smith, Gilbert S. Lyon and Abraham Hyatt represented this county, the Hon. Edwin Crosswell, of Greenburgli, was named as one of the two delegates from the Ninth District to the National Convention of the Democratic party, to be held at Charleston in the next April, to nominate its candidate for President. At a convention of Democrats of the Ninth District, dissatisfied with the action of the State Convention, William Radford, of Yonkers, afterward member of Congress, was chosen delegate to Charleston.