The Democrats nominated a strong and able man, Judge R.H.Thompson, of Brookhaven, Lincoln County.

The Republicans nominated a still stronger and abler man, Hon.

J.F.
Sessions, of the same town and county,--a Democrat who had represented Franklin County for several terms, but who had that year identified himself with the Republican party.

Sessions was Chancellor Cassidy's law partner.
Since the counties comprising that senatorial district constituted a part of the district that I then represented in Congress, I took an active part in the support of the candidacy of Sessions.

Although a Democrat, Hiram Cassidy, Jr., had been elected from that district in 1873, Sessions, a Republican, was elected by a handsome majority in 1874.