It cannot be denied however that Mr.Morrill's action created much ill-feeling on the Democratic side of the Senate.
Mr.Stockton's determination to vote must have been taken very hastily, without due reflection on his own part and without the advice of his political associates, who should have promptly counseled him against his unfortunate course.

The Parliamentary position of the question, at the moment he committed the blunder of voting, was advantageous to him on the record.

The Senate had defeated by a majority of two the declaration that he was not entitled to a seat, and the declaration in his favor, even after Mr.Morrill's negative vote, stood at a tie.
Nothing therefore had been done to unseat him, and if he had left it at that point he would still have remained a member by the _prima facie_ admission upon his regular credentials.
These proceedings took place on Friday and the Senate adjourned until Monday.

Meanwhile the obvious impropriety of Mr.Stockton's vote upon his own case had deeply impressed many senators, and on Monday, directly after the Journal was read, Mr.Sumner raised a question of privilege and moved that the Journal of Friday be amended by striking out the vote of Mr.Stockton on the question of his seat in the Senate.
He did this because, being on the defeated side, he could not move a reconsideration; but Mr.Trumbull and Mr.Poland, who had sustained Mr.Stockton's right to a seat, both offered to move a reconsideration, because they believed that he had no right to vote on the question.
Mr.Poland made the motion and it was unanimously agreed to.

Then, instead of urging the correction of the Journal of Friday, Mr.Sumner proposed a resolution declaring that "the vote of Mr.Stockton be not received in determining the question of his seat in the Senate," which was agreed to without a division.