When the votes were counted it was found that the Hubbard faction was one short. They counted and re-counted, and made the air blue with dire threats, wondering who had sold out, but no "Judas" could be found. Finally it was discovered that the country delegate aforesaid was missing. It was thought that he had gone home or had been called away on professional business, but such was not the case. The aforesaid country delegate was not made aware of the real condition of things till the next morning when he awoke in the back room of the doctor's office wondering how he had gotten such fine quarters without any assistance from either side, as far as he knew.
The convention went wild over Smythe's victory and the city of Marion, regardless of party, was caught in this wave of enthusiasm, and the only topic of conversation for a long time afterwards was "how William Smythe won the fight."
The newspaper which gave the best write-up of this political contest, and the paper which did more for Smythe than any other political organ in the county, was the Linn County Signal, edited by a nephew of S. W. Durham, by the name of Williams. The editorial writers, however, were such men as Dr. Thos. Bardwell, James Brown, S. W. Durham, Colonel I. M. Preston, and Judge J. H. Preston, who was just then beginning to learn the inside workings of politics. A tramp printer by the name of Tompkins came along some time before the convention occurred, out of money and out of work, and was employed on the paper. Tompkins looked and acted like a fool, but was in fact a genius. He could write better than the best of them, and knew shorthand as well. He reported the proceedings of this unique convention, and it is stated by all, regardless of party affiliations, that this write-up was the best of any political write-up of any convention before or since.
After Smythe had been duly nominated for congress, the democrats of Linn county refused to support the republican candidate any longer, as they were only acting in the capacity of beating Hubbard. William E. Leffingwell, of Clinton, one of the silver-tongued orators of the west and an eminent man in many ways, was selected as the standard bearer of the democratic party to oppose Smythe. As Hubbard and his friends knifed Smythe on account of the action taken by Smythe's followers in the county convention, there was hope that a democrat might be elected. The county democrats challenged Smythe to a joint debate, hoping that he would refuse to debate with a person much his superior. But Smythe accepted the challenge and it was decided that there should be three joint debates in the county, at Center Point, Marion, and Cedar Rapids. The first joint debate was to be held at Center Point—a democratic stronghold—and Smythe and his followers drove over from Marion in large numbers, for they wanted to protect their candidate in case any trouble should arise. Leffingwell and his party also started from Marion, made up of the most influential democrats in Cedar Rapids and Marion. Dr. Bardwell, one of the leaders of the democracy, and who had laid out the Hubbard supporter at the time of the convention, sat in the back seat of the buggy with Leffingwell and carried the same kind of wet goods along on this evening and for the same purpose that the candidate should take something for his stomach's sake. This time Bardwell was in earnest and really wanted to instill into the candidate a little of the spirit which would brace him up to a greater effort. He did not figure that Leffingwell's only fault was his love for the bottle. When they arrived at Center Point more liquor was added, and when Leffingwell sat in the stuffy room listening to Smythe's opening arguments half an hour, the liquor took effect, and he became so drunk that he could hardly stand up, and made a rambling sort of a speech as only one under the influence of liquor could make. Smythe replied to the rambling remarks of his opponent in a most masterly way and in such a telling manner that even the democrats got disgusted with their own candidate, and the Marion contingent felt that hanging would have been too good for Doc Bardwell.
This first meeting ended the joint debates with Leffingwell. Later in the fall the democrats secured another debater from southern Iowa in the person of Martin Van Buren Bennett, a rabid partisan and a fiery orator, who, perhaps, surpassed Smythe in oratory, but who failed to make any special gains for his party as he was an outsider who dwelt on past history and did not confine himself to present conditions.
BIRDSEYE VIEW OF CEDAR RAPIDS IN 1868
The friends of Smythe were very active among the democrats within the county to obtain their support, knowing that a large number of republicans would bolt the ticket. It was told that a fellow democrat went to old man Hickey in College township, an old Irishman and a stanch democrat, wanting him to vote for Smythe on the strength that he was born in Ireland. Hickey replied, "What! ask me to vote for an Orangeman, let me tell ye, when an Irishman steals a pig he gives half of it to the priest; when an Orangeman steals a pig he takes the whole d—thing and gives the priest nathing. No, I'll vote for no Orangeman for any office, I tell ye."