While the delegation would have consisted of five straight Republicans and one Democrat had the election been held in 1874, still, since the Democrats had such a large majority in the House, the political complexion of the Mississippi delegation was not important.

The election of the writer, it was afterwards developed, was due in all probability to a miscalculation on the part of some of the Democratic managers.

Their purpose was to have a solid delegation, counting Wells as one of that number, since his election would be due to the support of the Democratic party.
But in my district the plan miscarried.

In one of the counties there were two conflicting reports as to what the Democratic majority was; according to one, it was two hundred and fifty, according to the other, it was five hundred.

The report giving two hundred and fifty was, no doubt, the correct one, but the other would probably have been accepted had it been believed at the time that it was necessary to insure the election of the Democratic candidate.