Mr. DAVIS. I have but a word to say to the honorable Senfrom Illinois. He certainly has taken a very extraordinary occasion to deliver his speech in exposition of the merits of the petition which he has presented. I presume that the honorable Senator, o he has addressed his speech to the Senate, in tends it to reach to the Legislature of Illinois, and to influence a certain election that is shortly to come off there. If that be his object, I hope the honorable Senator will succeed in it. I have read the names of the competitors of the honorable Senfrom his own party for his succession, and I religiously believe that he is a much abler and a much better man than any of them or all of them together, if they could all be made into one man. [Laughter] I therefore hope that when that election comes off the honorable Senator will be reelected. I am satisfied that he will bring more ability to the seat which he is to vacate on the 3d of March than anyone who has been named, and I am equally satisfied that, although the modicum of' disinterested and unselfish patriotism which he will bring will not be very large, it will still be immensely greater than that which any of the others will bring. n relation to the memorial which the honorable Senator has presented, and the matters of complaint embodied in Iit, have only to say that in my judgment it amounts simply to this: there are in. States to which he refers an insignificant number of Radicals I do not speak of their respectability, but of their numbers. They are too insignificant to grasp the governments of those States, and they just petition Congress to put those States into commission, establish a government to be managed by commissioners, and in effect pray to be made those commissioners themselves. That is about the sum and substance of the whole thing. In the remarks which I have made I intend no discourtesy to the honorable Senfrom Illinois.. I feel great personal respect for him. I appreciate his ability as a Senator, as a law yer; I believe he is a much better man than most of the men with whom he is associated, and who act in connection with him in the country; and therefore I greatly desire, when his successor is to be elected, that he shall be his own successor.