Office seemed to me ever a badge of bondage.

I knew too much of the national capital to be allured by its evanescent and lightsome honors.

When the opportunity sought me out none of its illusions appealed to me.

But after a long uphill fight for personal and political recognition in Kentucky an election put a kind of seal upon the victory I had won and enabled me in a way to triumph over my enemies.

I knew that if I accepted the nomination offered me I would get a big popular vote--as I did--and so, one full term, and half a term, incident to the death of the sitting member for the Louisville district being open to me, I took the short term, refusing the long term.
Though it was midsummer and Congress was about to adjourn I went to Washington and was sworn in.