In that year he was elected member of Congress for the Ninth District on the regular Democratic ticket. It was soon evident tiiat he was not the man to sit on a back seat. His first speech attracted at once the attention of the House, being made in opposition to the attempt of Alexander H. Stephens to disgrace Admiral Hiram Paulding for causing the arrest of the noted filibuster, William H. Walker. This sj)ee<'h marked Mr. Haskin as one of the acconiplij^lu'd orators of the House. In the fierce

' political strife which followed the attempt to introduce

HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

slavery into the Territory of Kansas, he took at once j a jDrominent position, and was one of the first to raise his voice against the Lecompton fraud, among the j most active of the adherents of Senator Stephen A. Douglass, and an untiring organizer of the Democrats in the House against the administration. As a matter of course, a man who ventured to kick over the traces of party discipline was speedily denounced as a traitor to his party, but his opposition to Buchanan has been more than justified by the impartial verdict of history.

In 1858 Mr. Haskin was an Independent candidate for Congress, his opponent being Gouverneur Kemble, of Cold Spring. This was probably the most exciting political contest ever witnessed in the district, and resulted in the election of Mr. Haskin by a majority of thirteen votes. His nature showed itself when he stated from his seat in Congress, " I came here with no party collar on my neck." His independence was too plain to be misunderstood, and an attack upon him in the personal organ of President Buchanan was answered by him in an able speech on the floor of the House, in which his position and relation to the Democratic party were fully explained.