He received one hundred and twenty-seven votes against thirty cast for Mr.Samuel S.Marshall, a highly respectable Democrat member from Illinois.

As before, Mr.
Colfax, in his remarks when he took the chair, sought to present an embodiment of Republican policy on the current issues.

He declared that "the freeman's hands should wield the freeman's ballot;" that "none but loyal men should govern a land which loyal sacrifices have saved;" that "there can be no safe or loyal reconstruction on a foundation of unrepentant treason or disloyalty." The principal business of the session was to provide supplementary legislation to the Reconstruction Act which had been passed over the President's veto only two days before the new Congress assembled.
That Act, from a variety of circumstances, had been forced through at the last under whip and spur.

Upon close examination by the leading Republicans of both Senate and house it was found to be defective in many important respects, and especially to lack the detail necessary to give life and vigor to proceedings looking to the practical reconstruction of the Southern States.

The two Houses therefore addressed themselves promptly to the task of supplying the necessary amendments and additions.