CHAPTER XVIII.
The changes in the Senate on the 4th of March, 1869, were notable in the character both of the retiring and incoming members.
-- Hannibal Hamlin of Maine, entered the Senate for the fourth time.
His first election in 1848, to fill out the term of ex-Governor Fairfield, was for three years.

He resigned at the close of his second term to accept the governorship of his State, and midway in his third term he was promoted to the Vice-Presidency.

From his earliest participation in public life Mr.Hamlin enjoyed an extraordinary popularity.

Indeed, with a single exception, he was never defeated for any office in Maine for which he was a candidate.

In the great Whig uprising of 1840 he was the Democratic candidate for Congress in the Penobscot district, and was beaten by Elisha H.Allen, afterwards widely known as Chief Justice of Hawaii and Minister from that kingdom to the United States.